Look Right Through Me
by SplashofTime
Summary: AU/School set.Ianto suffers abuse only at school, but also at home from his Dad. When Jack becomes more than a friend he finds himself opening up to the guy that he loves, but can he, when his Dad is against the relationship? Can Jack keep his promises?
1. Chapter 1

Alright I have read quite a few fan fictions that have been set in schools and I wanted to try writing on for myself, so here it is, but first a few things that you should probably know about it.

Ianto is abused by his Dad at home and is in year ten at school (9th grade for Americans) and he is fifth teen. This is set after the October half term and all of his friends are around the same age.

Okay now on with the story.

* * *

It was past midnight and nearing one o clock and Ianto still wasn't asleep. School had started again yesterday and Ianto was glad that the half term was finally over. It was the end of October and heading into the beginning of November.

Ianto hadn't seen anything of his Dad today and was extremely glad of that factor, although he was well aware that he would most likely see him at some point tomorrow and for the duration of the rest of the week.

Mondays were the only day that Ianto was almost defiantly guaranteed not to see the man as he didn't go to work until about half two in the afternoon and only came back in at about midnight - by which time Ianto would usually either be asleep or be pretending to be sleeping.

The only Mondays when he saw his Dad were during the holidays. Oh how he hated the holidays. It gave his Dad so much more time to beat him up without anyone knowing. Not that he didn't do it when Ianto was at school, he just did it a hell of a lot worse when Ianto was home for a longer amount of time.

No one at school even knew about it as Ianto's Dad forced him not to tell by threatening him with things that Ianto knew he was not only capable of, but would carry out.

The door was opened and then loudly slammed shut and Ianto quickly jumped under the bed covers and tried to make it look like he was already asleep.

His bag was packed and placed neatly on the floor at the end of his bed. His uniform was hung up on hangers in his wardrobe and the whole house was clean and clear. All of the washing up was done and everything was placed where it should be. The television was turned off and so was every single other electrical device in the house that wasn't needed to be used.

The clothes had been washed and the shoes had been polished, surfaces had been dusted and plants had been watered. Ianto always remembered to do everything that his father asked of him.

He was, to most other people, the perfect idea of a son. But not to his Dad he wasn't. All his Dad cared about was his money, drinking and beating something up – that of which was usually Ianto – as he was always in the house.

Even when Ianto tried to avoid getting in trouble by doing everything that he was supposed to, it never seemed to work as his Dad always found something else to bring up, some other reason as to why he needed to beat up his son.

Sometimes there wasn't one.

Like over the holidays, he had demanded that Ianto left him out a drink for when he came home from his late night shifts and-

Ianto's blood ran cold.

He had completely forgotten about leaving out the drink. For a moment he considered running downstairs and putting it out now, however that idea was crushed when he heard his Dad calling out his name, his loud, booming voice breaking through the silence of the house.

"Ianto!" His heavy footsteps became closer and easier to hear, which told Ianto that he was coming up the stairs, "Ianto, don't make me come up there!"

Ianto didn't move, even if he had wanted to he couldn't manage it. He was now hoping that if he made himself seen asleep that his father might not bother him tonight and consider leaving him alone.

Silence ran through the house again and after fifth teen whole minutes, Ianto's Dad hadn't come anywhere near him.

Ianto let out a sigh of relief before turning over off of his side and onto his back, deciding to try and venture out to see if his Dad had fallen asleep on the sofa, like he had done so many time before.

But when he opened his eyes, he found himself staring directly into the face of his Dad, who had watched him silently all this time, so silently that Ianto hadn't even heard him come upstairs let alone the room.

Suddenly his body found the power, will and energy to move, however he didn't get far in his attempt to jump out of bed and run as his Dad was quicker and grabbed a firm hold of his son's wrist pulling him towards his stronger and older body.

And no matter how much Ianto struggled he couldn't get out of that.

* * *

The next morning he woke up on the floor of his bedroom, with a pounding headache. His whole room was a mess and he could only conclude that that was the result of his attempt at struggling to try and break free last night against his Dad.

He grabbed his uniform from his wardrobe and headed to the bathroom. He washed and changed quickly, although that didn't stop him from spending some time to look at his back in the mirror. The area around his shoulders was littered with bruises of all different colours, old and new and lower down his back there were still a few small cuts from an incident that had happened just under a week ago during the holidays.

Heading back into his bedroom he grabbed his bag before he made his way downstairs. His Dad was nowhere to be seen and Ianto believed that he might have gone to work early for once, before he heard the back door shut and saw his Dad walk back into the kitchen and down through the hall towards him.

"Trying to leave without saying good morning and goodbye are we?" Ianto knew that he wasn't really asking him, but was saying it as more of a statement. He didn't even try to leave, but just stood there deciding that his Dad might let him off easy if he didn't try and fight back like he had done last night.

"I want you home by twenty to four and I would like fish for tea." His Dad told him, his breath smelling of drugs and alcohol – despite how early in the morning it was and that he was meant to be working today – Ianto just took a step back and remained silent.

Although really he knew he should probably say something in reply. However sometimes his Dad was hard to read and you could never be sure whether you should speak in answer to him or not.

Obviously he should have gone with his gut instinct and said something as his Dad grabbed him around his next and throat and slammed him into the wall, pain running up through his back and across his shoulders, aggravating the old and the new bruises and the few small cuts that still remained.

"Did you get that?" Ianto could only nod, having lost the ability to speak for a minute as he struggled to get over the shock of being pushed back as force into a solid wall. The grip that held him up was released and he fell to the floor as his Dad left the house.

Ianto didn't move until he had heard his Dad's car pull away. He was still trying to get his breath back when he put his shoes on before he stood up – swaying slightly as he did so – before picking up his bag again, his back complaining at the weight of it on top of his injuries, however he just put on his normal façade before stepping out into the light of the day.

Toshiko, but more commonly known as Tosh to everyone that knew her well enough, was walking down the road to his house. She only lived a few streets away and would commonly meet him for the fifth teen to twenty minute walk to their school. Of course the walk could be made quicker if you decided to walk quicker, however they never did in the mornings as they met up with their friends and all chatted as they walked along.

They didn't have to walk very far (just down the street to the corner by a small shop) before they met Gwen, her boyfriend Rhys and Dav. They used to meet Lisa here as well before she moved to London with her parents two years ago.

Their school was just a few more streets down and then across the road. They would meet Jack and Owen as they walked anther of Rhys friends, who was more commonly than not, called Banana. And did Ianto mention that he had a crush on Tosh.

Tosh was talking to Gwen and Rhys was talking to Dav, however as they continued walking the two conversations merged together and Ianto didn't take part in either.

"Hey Ianto mate," Rhys said as he put an arm around Ianto's shoulders, "Are you gonna play football with us at lunch? You know it's team try outs soon and we need to be ready. So you in?"

Ianto was trying so badly not to flinch away or yell out in pain from Rhys touch, so instead he just decided to reply with the first thing that he could think of that was actually honest, "Yeah, maybe."

"Great." Rhys replied tapping him on the back before returning to his previous conversation and filling Dav in on his idea of playing football at lunch. Ianto was too bust focusing on the pain that was now coursing through him again that he wasn't looking where he was going and ran right into a giant military coat that could only belong to the one and only Jack Harkness, who was waiting casually with Owen, who was talking to Banana – irritation coursing through Owen's facial expression – as he attempted to explain to Banana the analogy that he had just used.

Ianto had been walking so quickly that he had bumped into Jack with such force that it had sent him reeling backwards, but Jack's reflexes were extremely quick and he grabbed a hold of Ianto's upper arms and shoulders and pulled him back up.

Ianto couldn't hide the wince of pain as the stronger did so.

"Woah, watch where you're going there Ianto," Jack started as he placed his hands on Ianto's shoulders – who was now stood upright, thinking for a moment that Jack had missed his wince of pain – but he was soon proved wrong when Jack fell silent before speaking again, "You alright?"

"Yeah, just a little shocked." Ianto tried to attempt a small smile which cleared up any sort of idea that was forming in Jack's head about him being hurt as he put on such a good fake show, although inside he felt like the pain was killing him. Jack still hadn't let go of his shoulders.

"Good." Jack replied before pulling Ianto close to him and ruffling his hair slightly, giving his shoulders and light squeeze, Ianto was only all too pleased when Jack let go and released his grip as Tosh and the others rounded the corner.

"Right let's all get going." Jack told the group before they all started to walk the final few streets to school, talking randomly as they did so. Once again Ianto tried to disappear and lose himself in silence, desperate to rid himself of his killing headache. He also hoped that no one else would think about wrapping an arm around him or hugging him for the rest of the day.

He was also extremely careful to look about him for anyone that may have just seen Jack hugging him like that. He wasn't so much looking at the students of his school, but at the adults, his eagle eyes looking through the morning crowd of people for anyone at all that his Dad knew.

He sighed in relief when he didn't see any one, however he had completely missed John Hart, who was stood in the shadows, leaning against one of the walls on the opposite side of the road.

John Hart didn't have a reputation for being the nicest person in school. He was an ex of Jack's and a bully on all levels, especially to the year sevens. Ianto had never been troubled by him, but that was probably, because he was a friend of Jack's. Although the pair had broken up in year eight after Jack had found out about John bullying loads of students.

Let's just say, John wasn't at all pleased about Jack's decision to break up with him. Ianto was worried about three things which were what was stopping him from telling Jack that he actually did love him.

One was John Hart, two was the fact that Jack might not actually love him in return and the third was his Dad. Eliminate those factors and then he may consider letting Jack know.

By the time they reached school they only had five minutes before they would have to be in their form room. Rhys, Dav and Banana were a different form, which just left the five of them to head into theirs.

Tosh sat down and read a book, Owen did some late, last minute homework and Ianto just listened to Gwen and Jack's conversation. That passed all of the twenty five minutes that they spent in what the school liked to call tutor time. Tosh only had one chapter left in her book by the end of it placing her on chapter seventeen and she'd only started on number five this morning.

Ianto headed to maths with Tosh as they were in the same group and Jack headed off down the other end of the corridor with Gwen and Owen, as they were all in the same maths group as well.

* * *

Jack couldn't help, but look over his shoulder at Ianto as he walked down the other end of the corridor. Something was wrong with him, that much Jack was sure off. Because, yes he had used a lot of force to pull Ianto back up in order to stop him from hitting the floor, but he hadn't used enough to make him wince like he had.

And then when he'd hugged him and ruffled his hair, he hadn't missed how Ianto had visibly flinched and tried to pull away from him.

Jack Harkness was known by everyone to be bisexual, but he still had tons of girls asking to go out with him. He knew that Gwen would probably want to as well if she wasn't perfectly happy with Rhys.

He wondered if Ianto liked him, because he defiantly loved the Welshman, without a doubt.

Jack had concluded as he sat down in maths that he was going to get closer to Ianto and work out what was wrong with him.

* * *

Alright, I'll update Slowly Decaying tomorrow. I hope that you like this and thanks for reading and please review.


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you for the five reviews that this story already has, I didn't expect that many on the first chapter. But anyway here is chapter two.

* * *

In his second lesson, which turned out to be science Ianto had met back up with Jack, who had decided to take biology as well – although Ianto thought that the reason Jack had chosen that was most likely for the fact that both he and Owen had decided to take it.

Gwen, Rhys and Dav had decided on chemistry and Tosh had gone for physics to which Banana had then also chosen the subject, despite his lack of knowledge on it, to allow himself to spend more time with Toshiko.

Owen and Jack had walked in about three minutes after him and say down one either side of him. They talked about hearts for the whole lesson and their homework was set to do with the human respiratory system and the lungs as well as ways that they could be impaired.

Ianto knew that it wouldn't take him too long to do that as he already knew an awful lot about ways that and having his dad for a dad had only increased that knowledge. Jack looked like he hadn't been following a thing all lesson, although Ianto could probably guess that the reason was because he had spent all of his time watching him.

When science ended Owen went to wait for Tosh and the others to come out of their lesson while Jack decided to take Ianto back to their form room and wait for them in there.

The two were talking while the others were gone and John was watching the pair of them from the corridor. Jack was telling a very bad joke and Ianto was trying to look like he was actually finding it funny.

After that break time was relatively boring for Ianto, who just sat there listening to the rest of the group's conversation. He didn't eat anything as he had completely forgotten about his lunch this morning when his Dad had pushed him against the wall.

Although it didn't bother him that everyone else was eating or that he didn't have any food to eat for himself, because he just wasn't feeling hungry and even if he was whether or not he could eat it was another story entirely.

When the bell rang, Ianto couldn't help, but sigh as he knew what his next lesson was. When he had received his time table just over a month ago at the beginning of the school year, he had taken the liberty of remembering it all, lesson per hour and lesson per day.

He had art with no one that he actually liked. He didn't even like art and he wasn't very good at it, however he'd been forced to take it for GCSE by his Dad and Ianto was beginning to wish that he hadn't bothered to listen to the man.

Ianto pulled his bag onto his back and winced at the extra weight as he left the room, desperately hoping that no one had noticed the action, but Jack had.

John was sat down at one of the numerous tables working on his art work that was in front of him or in a better description – not working on it – when Ianto walked in. The pair of them never spoke to each other or sat at the same table whenever they had the power of choice.

There would be times when John would smirk over in his direction and Ianto was sure that it was, because he knew Jack as a friend, a very good friend, although John probably considered that the two of them were more than that.

Art always seemed to go slowly for him since he usually sat on his own focussing on his art work more than the other people around him. He was always glad when art ended as it meant that he could return to being with his actual friends, or people that he actually got along with anyway.

You could never be sure if your friends were actually friends.

Picking up his sketch book Ianto headed out of the room and back into the hallway, his still heavy school bag weighing down on him. He was just heading to the main exit of the building when something pushed him into the wall causing him to cry out in pain. Luckily he was good at making himself very quiet from the experience.

He looked up in time to see John Hart leaving the building and Ianto could guess that the look on his face was probably a very triumphant one.

Despite this factor, Ianto still made it to English on time although he put it down to the fact that they had been allowed to leave art almost five minutes early, which gave him plenty of time to walk here at a slower pace.

Tosh had seen him walking into the smaller building in which four classrooms were situated all of them being used mainly for English lessons. She was talking about what she had done in her technology class.

Technology was something that Ianto had dropped – much to his Dad's disapproval and he had suffered for that decision, which he supposed influence on his decision to take art as he didn't really want to go through being kicked in the legs until they were covered in bruises and you could barely stand again. You got three technology choices which were cooking, graphics or working with wood and metal.

Ianto didn't want to take any of those choices and he had a good reason for not doing so. Firstly working with wood and metal was far too much work and effort (especially if you're constantly in enough pain from other injuries and factors), secondly he would almost defiantly fail graphics as he couldn't work all of these programs that they used like solid works and coral draw and lastly cooking, well he did enough of that at home for his Dad – so an extra two hours of it a week wasn't something that he fancied doing.

If they had been offering something to do with sewing than Ianto may have considered it.

Tosh had taken graphics and always ended up ahead of the rest of the class, Ianto smiled slightly as he listened to her tale of how she had made a 3D model of an elephant and added it into a 3d model of classroom.

The classroom that they had English in wasn't used for the lesson before theirs, so they always went straight in and sat down. A few people were already there and the pair walked to their two separate tables. Gwen and Rhys walked in a few minutes later having come from the far side of the school building and sat down at their desk which was a row across from where Tosh and Owen sat.

They were followed by Owen who was walking in with a glum expression on his face, complaining about how he had a massive piece of writing due in tomorrow for German that had to be written in German and he wasn't allowed to use his trusty Google translate any more as Frau Holden had caught him using it before.

Owen had never really liked her anyway.

As he sat down in his seat next to Tosh, Ianto could hear the Japanese girl asking him way he hadn't done any work on it in the free lesson time that he had for the past hour.

Each of them got two free lessons a week in which they weren't constricted to a classroom or forced to listen to a teacher. They could go outside, to the library anywhere as long as it was still in school. Gwen and Tosh both had theirs at the same time, second lesson on a Monday and last lesson on a Wednesday.

Rhys got one at the same time as Gwen and Tosh which was last lesson on a Wednesday and his second was third lesson on a Friday. Owen's were both during third lessons – one on the Tuesday and on Friday – placing one of his at the same time as Rhys.

Ianto had a free lesson with Tosh and Gwen on a Monday second lesson and one on his own on Friday morning, first lesson. Jacks were last lesson on a Monday and second lesson on a Wednesday.

Jack walked in about thirty seconds before there teacher after being let out late from drama. He sat down next to Ianto like he always did in English, with a smiling face as he pulled out his yellow coloured English book.

Each lesson had different coloured books - most likely just to make it easier to remember- although that never seemed to help Owen, who always ended up writing down English into a sketch book or a Russian book.

Their English Teacher, Mr Forford could be a very angry man when he wished, however he usually liked to attempt to keep his temper. He sat his class in sixteen rows of four columns, believing that this way he may have less noise and less conversations to put up with and to stop.

Ianto managed to write down everything off of the board, even though his wrist was aching by the end of it and his shoulders and back were still burning from the two times that he had been thrown against a wall today as well as last night's fight that took place against him and his Dad – he remembered that his wrist had been grabbed in that fight as well.

Jack had been peering over his shoulder through the lesson to copy some of the notes that he was missing on the subject of sentence structures and different types of sentences as well as notes on verbs, adverbs, adjectives and nouns.

Packing up at the end everyone started smiling and chatting again until Mr Forford interrupted telling them that they would be studying Macbeth over the next few months, which created a set of groans from the class.

Jack and Ianto stood up and left with the rest of the class. Mr Forford called out to Jack and asked to speak to him for a few minutes if he could spare the time, (to which Jack was tempted to say no) however he did telling Ianto that he would see him a little later.

Tosh, Owen, Gwen and Rhys headed off to meet Banana and Dav, Rhys carrying a football with him. He asked Ianto if he was interested in playing with them, however he denied and headed off in another direction, deciding not to tell any of them the whereabouts of where he was actually going.

Ianto headed to the library a place that he now spent an awful lot of time in lately.

The Liberian, John Davies, was an older man who spent a lot of time looking through books and sorting out the state that the students left the library in. He was very familiar with the fact that he would rarely see anyone at break, lesson or lunch times apart from one particular person.

So it didn't come as a shock to see him walk through the double doors with his head down and completely alone.

"Ianto, how are you?" He asked as he looked up from his computer at the youngers face, that looked anything, but happy.

"Yeah, I'm good."

"Anything I can help you with? Homework? Finding a book?"

"No I'm alright thanks." Ianto said before starting to walk towards the stairs that lead to the upper floor where the books were kept.

"Oh, Ianto," John called out causing Ianto to turn back to face him, "Any chance that you can take these up for me?" He asked holding out a pile of books. Ianto nodded, walked back over and took the small stack of books before walking up the stairs, putting then all back and then sitting down in a corner.

* * *

Jack had spent all of his lunch time looking for Ianto, yet he had failed to find him. The young Welsh boy was extremely good at hiding when he wanted or needed to be.

He had spoken to Tosh, Owen, Gwen and Rhys first all of whom knew nothing more than he did. By the time he had finished looking, lunch time was over and he figured that he hadn't checked two major places.

Behind the gym and the library. He decided that the library was more likely and then headed to French. He found himself sat down waiting for Ianto to come and join him and Rhys before Miss Pen bored them to death with things that they didn't understand.

After quarter of an hour, Ianto still hadn't turned up and Jack raised a hand to ask if he could go to the toilet to which Miss Pen allowed after he had asked him French - which was a massive struggle for him – but he eventually managed and left the room, heading for the library.

* * *

Ianto was still sat in the corner when the end of lunch bell rang. He wasn't very easy to find sat where he was, however he still didn't think that more than one or two people had come up here at lunch.

He heard footsteps and then John Davies voice as the old man looked at him. The librarian had come to learn where Ianto hid himself and sometimes joined him at lunch time and talked about some of his favourite books.

He could never always be sure if Ianto was listening or if he even cared, but sometimes he would say something and then Ianto would respond in some way that told him that the younger was actually listening to him.

"You know you should be getting to your lesson," Ianto looked up at him before looking back down, almost solemnly .

"Do I have to? My head hurts." Ianto replied as he placed his head in his hand and pulled his knees closer. John looked at his wrist before thinking that it must be his imagination and that Ianto wrist wasn't as red and sore as it looked.

John sighed, "What lesson are you meant to be in?"

"French."

"Teacher?"

"Miss Pen."

"Alright I'll slip a note onto the computer register for you and you can stay here." John told Ianto as he started to walk away, but he was stopped by a quiet voice.

"Thank you."

* * *

Jack made his way into the library and saw walked over to the librarian - John something or other – and took a deep breath before speaking.

"Have you seen someone called Ianto Jones? Welsh, fifth teen about-"

"Yes I know who he is," John replied and when he looked at Jack's face he thought he could see some sort of caring emotion for a second, "He's upstairs walk straight along until you get to the section at the very end – full of music books that part is – turn to the right, he's sat in the corner."

"Thank you." Jack replied before heading up the stairs and following his given directions until he could see Ianto clearly.

Ianto heard some form of talking and then footsteps coming up the stairs. He wondered who it was, but knew that he probably shouldn't as it was most likely only going to be Jack. And he was proved right when Jack turned into the section full of music books.

"You're meant to be in French." He said before continuing forward towards him.

"So are you."

"Very good," Jack replied as he sat down and looked over at Ianto who had his head down low, resting against the wall, avoiding Jack's gaze from what the older could tell, "How are you? I didn't really ask you that this morning."

"Why should you?" Ianto asked seeming slightly confused at what Jack was saying.

"Well when we ran into each other this morning I didn't really see if you were hurt too bad and I just didn't ask in general – oh do I really need a reason to ask how you are?"

"I know people who do." Ianto replied, choosing not to be too obvious as to who he was talking about, but it was alright as Jack didn't ask on any further than that.

"Just answer the question."

"I have a headache."

"So that's you're reason for not coming and saving me and Rhys from being killed by Miss Pen for not being able to understand French?" When Ianto didn't reply to it for a minute, Jack thought that Ianto might not have realised that he was joking before the younger smiled slightly moved forward to get up.

As he did, Jack saw his jumper rise up his arm slightly and managed to notice how red it was and wondered if it was just the fabric of the uniform that was irritating his skin or if it was something else, however he decided to play it safe and didn't bother to ask.

Ianto walked down with Jack and smiled at John Davies as he left a silent thank you for allowing him to stay here when he really shouldn't have. As he and Jack made it back across the stone gravelled path to the main school building and their French classroom they talked, although it was Jack who spoke first.

"Ianto I was wondering if you maybe wanted to go to the park at some point after school or something you know like today, tomorrow, another day?"

"Maybe I'll see what I'm doing and let you know."

"So you can't do today?"

"No I can't." Ianto replied, remembering what his Dad had said to him this morning before he left. Be home by twenty to four. It was at least a fifth teen minute walk from his school to home.

"Alright then it will have to be another day." Jack smiled trying not to show his disappointment at not being able to spend a bit of time with Ianto. The younger could only smile back slightly before he felt compelled to speak.

"Sorry."

"No, no it's fine you don't have to apologise to me." Jack replied before pulling the door open and holding it for Ianto before following him in.

After French, Miss Pen decided that she wanted to speak to Ianto about how he missed a vital lesson that he needed to catch up on, even though he had already done the whole lesson in the previous one, because he got too far ahead.

She kept him back for about three minutes making Ianto even later to get home. He ran for as far as he could before he was forced to walk due to the bag he carried putting too much weight on his back and himself just feeling generally exhausted.

He found himself getting home at ten to four, although he couldn't even see his Dad's car, although it could be round the back or in the garage.

Surely that was a good sign, so why did Ianto feel like it wasn't?

* * *

Alright I'll hopefully put the next chapter up on Friday or Saturday – more likely the latter – I hope you liked this chapter, thanks for reading, please review and thanks for reviewing.


	3. Chapter 3

Okay here's the next chapter.

* * *

Ianto had started doing his Dad's tea the minute that he got in. His Dad liked to have his tea early, so that he could then do an awful lot of drinking at home or go out to a pub, although Ianto found that he seemed to like staying home a little bit more now, even though it was only to beat him up.

After all you couldn't really do that at a local pub.

Fish, just as his Dad had asked and Ianto took out a can of beet to be on the safe side – as it was unlikely that his Dad would say no to a drink, even though by doing that Ianto could be putting his health at risk – and switched the TV onto his Dad's favourite channel. Just as he was doing this a car pulled up outside.

Ianto decided that he could probably get away with telling his Dad that he was home at the time that he had told him (since the man hadn't been here when he had gotten home) and quickly looked around to make sure that everything was tidy and in its place. It all was, except for his bedroom.

"Ianto! Where's my tea?" Ianto didn't answer and let his dad enter the living room like he usually did to find his son holding a plate of food with a knife and fork on it and a can of beer on one of the cabinets that were in the room. Without any more words he took the plate from Ianto and sat down.

He didn't make to eat anything, but Ianto couldn't care less and just started to leave the room, however his Dad's voice once again stopped him.

"You did me fish."

"You asked me to do you fish."

"I wanted meat."

"You told me this morning that you wanted fish." His Dad put the plate down and stood up from the sofa. Ianto started to walk out of the door, knowing that it was the best way to walk if his Dad was going to turn on him – which was extremely possible at any point in time.

However that plan didn't go to well as he walked into the bottom of the stair case.

"I wanted meat."

"Well you got fish, because that's what you asked for." That earned him a slap to the face which caused him to lose his balance and sent him reeling backwards on to the stairs, hitting his head on the banister as he fell.

"Fine I'll do it myself, but don't expect me to do anything for you!"

"You never do!" Ianto shouted back as his Dad walked into the kitchen. Ianto picked himself up and headed upstairs to his room. He picked his mobile up off of his bed and considered maybe phoning Owen or someone to see if he could stay with them, but he decided against it as it would only make things worse.

He then considered calling Jack to ask if he still wanted to go to the park, but felt that he couldn't be bothered to go anywhere with his head pounding. So he laid down on his bed and tried to block out the pain that was rushing through him and his Dad's constant racket from downstairs as he shouted at the TV and just anything that was near him.

Eventually he fell into some form of sleep, although he knew it wouldn't last him very long and he was right, because a few hours later he was awake again.

* * *

Jack sat at home watching the boring TV that they put on. He didn't care how late it was getting, knowing full well that it was now coming up towards eleven o clock, but he couldn't care less. He went up to his bed room a little while later and checked his emails on his laptop before checking his phone for new messages a few times.

He went to bed at about half twelve. He had been hoping that Ianto might have contacted him about going to the park at some point, however the Welsh boy hadn't and the American couldn't say that he wasn't disappointed.

Then again tomorrow – or today even – was just another day.

* * *

Tosh walked down the road and stopped outside of Ianto's house. She noticed a car there and assumed that it belonged to Ianto's Dad, although she knew from what Ianto had said that he usually went to work before they left for school.

So why was he still there? Unless he had a day off or something.

She saw Ianto run out of the door and look back over his shoulder after she had waited for about a minute and he looked even paler than he did yesterday. Of course Tosh had noticed that Ianto hadn't looked very good yesterday, but today he just looked another step worse.

"Are you okay Ianto?" She asked as he walked to be stood beside her, but he shook it off and just kept walking forward towards school. Tosh just dropped the subject, although she could see that Ianto was trying to shield one side of his face from her view.

* * *

Ianto's Dad still hadn't left by the time Ianto saw the time and knew that Tosh would soon be waiting for him outside of his house. He went to leave the kitchen, but yet again his Dad blocked his path, a bottle of bear held tightly in his grip as he pushed his son backwards, Ianto pushed him back.

His Dad threw the bottle onto the ground, the glass shattering with one shard cutting into Ianto's right cheek. It made two cuts, one that went down vertically and a smaller one that went along horizontally. Ianto ran out of the room while his Dad shouted a string of curses at him and instructed him to get back in the kitchen.

Ianto didn't stop running until he was out of the door, looking back over his shoulder before he turned and noticed Tosh stood by the front of the house, smiling at him. A smile which she soon dropped. She asked him if he was alright and he ignored the question and started walking ahead off her.

* * *

Gwen was holding Rhys had while she waited with Banana and Dav for Tosh and Ianto. When the pair met up with them they all continued walking although Ianto was walking ahead of all of them, his pace a lot quicker than it needed to be as they were in plenty of time to get to school with at least two or three minutes before they had to be in tutor time.

Jack and Owen were already there waiting for them and Ianto walked straight past Jack, who then walked quicker to catch up to him abandoning the rest of the group just to keep pace with Ianto, who really did look like he was about to pass out.

"Ianto what day can you go to the park?"

"Um I could probably do this afternoon if that works with you." Ianto replied. His Dad didn't come home till about nine o clock on a Wednesday, so Ianto hoped that he would be alright to do that and after the fight that they had both had during the night, he decided that he would much prefer to be out of the house just in case he came in early.

Because he wasn't going to be a happy man.

"Yeah I can do that it will be fun." Ianto hated the four words 'it will be fun', because it never turned out to be. That was exactly was his Dad had told him the day that he took him to the park after he hadn't laid a hand on Ianto for three whole weeks – which back then was a new record and Ianto was in good health - and that was the day that his Dad broke his leg.

They managed to get to school without anyone noticing the cuts on Ianto's cheek, mainly because he was keeping ahead of everyone, so that they couldn't see.

But when they walked into their form room that luck changed as Jack sat on Ianto's right, giving him a direct full view of the cuts.

"Ianto how did you do that?" He asked in a whisper, trying not to draw attention to them as he brought a hand up towards the other's face. Ianto flinched backwards out of Jack's way, "Alright sorry, I'll leave them alone." Jack told the younger as he pulled his hands back towards him.

When Ianto had to go to Spanish he felt himself dreading it as it meant him being alone for an hour and he would most likely be completely bored. He may receive a few strange looks from people, but at least none of them would actually quiz him on it. Most of them probably wouldn't even notice.

Jack sat in German next to Owen and Tosh. Rhys was in Russian with Banana and Dav and Gwen was unlucky enough to get put in the same French group as John, so Jack had made sure to warn her about him.

Jack couldn't stop thinking about how Ianto had gotten those cuts on his cheek, especially as he had never actually given Jack a direct answer.

Ianto headed to drama and smiled at Gwen, happy to see her. She smiled back before tilting her head slightly and pointed to his cheek, Ianto shook his head before telling her not to worry as they sat down on the floor in front of the stage and began to talk about what they might do for their next drama piece.

Owen had complained about going to art, saying that it was more of a thing for girls like Tosh and Gwen – but no offence to Rhys and to Ianto who wasn't present with them – and that his mother had made him take one of the worst subjects possible.

Jack reminded Owen that he didn't have to do so, however Owen had told the American that he wanted to at least try and make his mother proud and maybe then he'd actually get a decent amount of praise.

"And she might even sort me out a good birthday party for this year on a date which everyone could do, because Ianto couldn't come last year and Tosh was on holiday with her Mum in Japan and-" Jack drew back out of the conversation to allow Owen and Rhys to walk to art.

He headed onto the netball courts – which were always unused first and second lesson on a Wednesday and sat down on one of the benches.

Yes, Owen was right Ianto hadn't been able to come to his birthday party last year, however Jack doubted that it was because of the date. Owen was jealous that Jack got to sort out his own birthday parties, thanks to the money that his parents had left him while they worked up in Scotland. Jack had never told anyone what they did as it was a Harkness family secret.

Jack thought that Owen should at least be grateful that his mother sorted him out a birthday party, because if he remembered rightly – which he almost always did – then Ianto hadn't had a birthday party in nine years.

The whole free hour went by quickly for Jack and he was happy when it came to break time. He remembered Ianto's timetable in his head, even though he didn't know his own and headed off towards the drama hall.

He knew that Ianto had drama with Gwen and that made him smile, because he knew that Ianto would have had some company after an hour of being on his own.

He saw the pair of them walking down the stairs from the drama hall to their form room and joined them in sitting down to wait for the others. Tosh came down the same stairs that Gwen and Ianto had a moment ago making her way towards them after having IT and five minutes later they were joined by Owen and Rhys.

All six of them had English after break and Jack smiled at the opportunity of getting to sit next to Ianto for a whole hour. Ianto didn't eat anything again at break, but when Jack asked he reassured him that he had eaten breakfast and dinner last night – well he sort of had.

Mr Forford set them homework to write a story and a more eventful part of the lesson, had an argument with Jack over Americans being less talented at story writing. It was an event that made Ianto smile and it had gone something like the following.

"And as we all know you children are worse at writing stories than all of us adults and teachers and-"

"Sorry, but we are so not any worse than you are." Jack interrupted.

"What exactly did you say?"

"Us children as you put it we are just as good at writing things as you are, just because we're younger doesn't mean that we can't write decent stories."

"Okay prove that to me then."

So Jack's lesson had been spent writing a three page long opening to a story and when Mr Forford read it to the class he found a word that he could even pronounce it there and Jack had to tell him how to say it and what it meant, proving that being American didn't affect how you wrote stories.

The whole class couldn't believe that Mr Forford had never heard of the word _'ameliorate'_ which meant _'when someone makes a situation easier or better in some way,' _especially when he was meant to be an English teacher. Jack decided that he was going to complain about that previous comment being unfair.

Most of the class clapped him for standing up for people of their age and Jack thanked them for backing him up. Owen wrote about it on Facebook and had just over one hundred likes by the end of English. He had a tone of people who were his friends on Facebook that he didn't actually know.

Ianto said goodbye to Jack after English as he headed away to music. Jack didn't realise that he was staring at Ianto, completely out of it, until Gwen got Rhys to drag him away to history. Tosh headed to her technology lesson and Owen sulkily made his way to geography. Gwen was the last of the group to head off to her fourth lesson of the day - RE.

Ianto loved music. He played both the piano and the guitar and had done since he was seven. He didn't have a piano at home as his Dad wouldn't allow it, however he did have a guitar. He loved it as well as it was a dark blue and black coloured item which was always in perfect condition and completely clean – there was never any dust or finger marks on it – never.

Their music teacher, Miss Davies was twenty four, but she was incredibly talented with a piano and a violin. She was Ianto main favourite teacher as she seemed to always understand him. He knew her as Rhiannon as well as Miss Davies – who would soon become Mrs as she was getting married – and Ianto was happy for her.

She allowed him to spend lunch time in a smaller music practise room that they had and Ianto always thanked her for it, just like he did John, for letting him stay in the library. That lunch time she made him the same offer as she always did after a music lesson.

"Do you want to stay here today Ianto?" She asked after everyone else had left while Ianto picked up his bag. He thought for a moment before deciding against it.

"No thanks I think I'll stay outside today."

"Good you need more fresh air. I'll see you on Friday Ianto." She replied before moving to sort out some work for her class that she had after lunch. A group of year seven's Ianto believed. He couldn't help but smile at her last comment although he had to admit that she was right.

He headed out onto the netball courts and saw Jack walking towards him with Rhys and smiled again before heading over to them. Rhys had a football with him and was talking to Jack about something that Ianto couldn't over hear from the distance that was between them.

Gwen and Tosh were sat at one of the benches talking when the boys joined them. Dav and Banana arrived a little later followed by Owen who was still complaining about getting extra homework in Geography, because he didn't know about what the biosphere was.

Rhys suggested that they played football again and a few of his other friends came over to join in. Gwen agreed to play and Tosh refused the offer. Owen also turned it down deciding that he needed to do his Geography homework – which Ianto kindly volunteered to help him with – Tosh told Ianto that she'd help Owen and that he should play football.

Jack smiled and nodded his thanks to Tosh who just smiled back as he and Ianto made their way over to Rhys and the others.

None of them asked about the cuts on Ianto cheeks and lunch ran smoothly also accompanied by the fact that Ianto scored two goals and allowed the team that he and Jack were on to win the small lunch time game.

When Owen packed away his homework, he looked none the wiser on any of it and walked away from Tosh without so much as a thank you. Jack looked to Ianto, who was looking at Tosh – most likely feeling sorry for her – Jack knew that Tosh had told Ianto about how she felt.

"I'll meet you at the gate after school then and we can head to the park." Jack told Ianto who nodded in reply.

"I'll see you then."

Gwen, Tosh and Rhys stayed outside for their final lesson as it was a free one and they could do as they wished, Owen went to History and Jack went to drama while Ianto headed to RE.

He zoned out of RE and focussed on the time that he and Jack were going to spend together in the park after school. Mrs Jones voice broke him out of his thoughts.

"I have been given some letters to give to all of you which need to be returned by the end of this week as the letters are referencing an event on Monday." She handed them out to each of them and Ianto skim read the letter before turning back to thinking.

At the end of the lesson he was quick to be out of the door before anyone else - which was a very unusual thing for him to do unless he was in a rush to get home to avoid being told off by his Dad - but today there was a reason that was to do with himself, not his Dad.

Jack was waiting for him by the gate and smiled when the younger came into his view.

"Ready?"

"Yeah. Let's go." And with that the pair started off towards the park.

Ianto was almost like a new person - almost like a child noticing something for the first time - as they walked through the park. He was smiling more than Jack had seen him smile in long while. They walked over to the grass and park benches that were outside the main child's play park. Jack sat down and Ianto sat down next to him, looking at the children playing without any worries.

"We should arrange a sleep over it could be a my house or yours which ever you prefer."

"I think yours might be best." Ianto replied, knowing that his Dad would never allow him to have a sleepover at his house.

"Okay we'll sort out a date," Jack replied with a smile before changing the subject, "Did you get given a letter today in your last lesson?"

"Yeah I did."

"School trip to a museum on Monday. It sounds quite fun."

"Yeah I suppose so." The rest of their time they spent talking and laughing about events that went on it their lives (although Ianto didn't mention his Dad and situation at home,) even when Jack brought the cuts on his cheek back up. Ianto just gave him the excuse that he fell over.

Not overly believable, but it would do. Jack didn't say any more on the subject seeing how it had made the mood of happiness drop down by many levels.

When Ianto next checked the time on his phone he found that it was later than he thought as it was just coming up towards six o clock. It was quarter to, which was way later than he usually had to be home. Five had been the latest time that he had gotten away with in past years unless he was with his Dad.

"Ianto is something wrong?" Jack asked seeing how his friend had suddenly tensed and from what Jack could make out, cursed under his breath.

"No I just need to be getting home it will be dark soon and it's quarter to six, so you should probably get going home as well and I have cleaning to do and homework-" Ianto cut off his sentence abruptly when he stood up. He swayed to the side and almost fell right back down.

Jack had moved quickly and caught him feeling that he might be making quite a habit of doing that.

"Okay you are not alright."

"No I am," Ianto forced, "I just stood up too quickly that's all." His lie wasn't convincing when he stood up and almost fell back down again, but instead a hand flew up to his head as he felt the same pounding headache that he had last night after he hit it on the stairs return to him.

He was aware of Jack's hand being placed on his shoulder to try and help him keep his balance. Ianto took one step forward away from Jack, however he quickly moved back as the world around him span.

"I'm walking you home."

"You don't need to my Dad can look after me." Ianto knew that he was lying to Jack and also trying to keep himself from telling Jack that it was a lie.

"Yeah I'm he will, but you have to get there first don't you." Ianto nodded before regretting it completely. Jack saw this and moved his hands, so that he had one around Ianto's waist before he started to make his way across the park while keeping Ianto up on his feet.

It didn't take them too long to reach Ianto's house – who was glad to be home to get out of the dark as he wasn't very trusting of what could be out there – Jack didn't seem bothered about having to come even further out of his way to escort him home.

His Dad's car was in the drive, but all of the lights were off inside. When Ianto looked he thought that he could see two cars parked in the drive, however he put it down to his head being funny and him seeing double.

Reaching back he grabbed his keys from his bag while Jack helped him stay upright before putting them in the lock and opening it, hoping that then Jack would leave him alone. He made his way inside carefully with his hand against the wall until he had flipped the light switch on.

"Hello? Dad?" He called, but received no answer he turned to Jack who was waiting just inside of the door with Ianto's keys in his hand, "His car is out there, but he's not in." Ianto mumbled while he knew that the biggest possibility was that he had gone to the pub.

Jack pushed the front door shut and placed Ianto's keys on the telephone table before walking over to Ianto and taking his bag off of him. Ianto sat on the stairs and took his shoes off before resting his head against the bannister. Things were becoming less blurred and more focussed by the second.

"I'll be alright on my own for a while. You can go home."

"I'd think that you were desperate to get rid of me Ianto," Jack replied as he made his way over to the bottom of the stairs, "Don't worry it's only coming up to six o clock, I'll be fine. But I'm staying with you until there is someone here to look after you."

Ianto couldn't think of an argument as Jack led him into the kitchen and sat him down on a chair. He had to look through two of the cupboards before he found where Ianto kept the glasses before he filled one with water and handed it to Ianto to drink. Jack couldn't help, but notice a few shards of green glass by the entrance into the kitchen.

He sat with Ianto for a few minutes before he heard the familiar sound of keys in locks. Ianto's head flew up from where it had been resting on top of his arms – which he had placed on the table – and he immediately placed a hand to it. Jack moved closer and placed a hand on his friends back, not worrying about the front door being opened as it could only be Ianto's Dad.

He could hear footsteps coming closer, but either Ianto's Dad had massive feet or he wasn't alone. He didn't get much further of thinking what he was going to say when a loud voice cut through the silence.

"What the hell is he doing here, Ianto!" Jack turned around to look at the owner of the voice, who he assumed was Ianto's Dad and behind him stood another man who was looking at him with the same confusion as the look on Ianto's Dad's face.

Although anger also seemed to be mixed in with the expression on the man's face. Jack looked back at Ianto to see if he was going to speak and was shocked to see that Ianto looked terrified of the man stood in the entrance to the kitchen.

And Jack couldn't help, but fell like he needed to leave the house.

* * *

Okay this chapter is so much longer than the other two, but I still hope that you enjoy it. I have to thanks you for the five favourites and sixteen alerts that this story has as well as the seven reviews. I hope to update again on Tuesday. I'll try and do Monday, but it might be late in the evening if it is. Anyway thanks for reading, please review and thanks for reviewing.


	4. Chapter 4

Alright thank you for all of the reviews, so far and here's the fourth chapter.

* * *

Ianto looked completely terrified as he looked at the man that was stood in the kitchen doorway. Jack was fighting the urge to just run away from the house as quickly as he could, however he decided that Ianto was his friend.

And friends didn't just leave their friends.

From somewhere he managed to find the courage to speak, "I just walked him home and I was planning on leaving as soon as you got home. I only came back with him, because-" Jack stopped speaking suddenly ending on an unfinished sentence.

He turned away from the man who was presumably Ianto's Dad and back to look at Ianto who had gone almost as white as a sheet, although he looked less terrified now he was shaking his head at Jack slightly – almost silently willing him to shut up.

"Well why the hell did you walk him home?" The man moved and came slightly further into the kitchen, so that the man who was still stood behind him could make his way into the scene as well. If it was possible Ianto became even paler than he was before and Jack concluded that if he became any paler he would disappear completely.

"I'm sure that he can walk himself home. Especially since he would have been home by ten to five it's five past bloody six now, so if that's right why the hell are you still here?"

Ianto obviously handed mentioned to his Dad that he was going to the park and that made Jack unsure as to whether to mention it or not. He decided in the end that mentioning it might be better and easier to explain.

"We only just came home you see. We went to the park after school and time just slipped away from us. I walked Ianto home about five minutes ago, because he wasn't feeling very well and still isn't if you look to me he looks like he's about to pass out and I wanted to be sure that he was home safely and had someone to look after him." The whole room feel silent when Jack stopped speaking and that gave him time to look at people's expressions.

The man that he didn't know had none at all, Ianto's Dad looked… - well Jack couldn't tell what his expression was – and Ianto's he couldn't see as the younger was staring at the floor. It was Ianto's Dad who broke the silence.

"Oh well, I'm sorry for shouting, you see I just don't like people coming into my house without my knowing. I like my son to be as safe as I can keep him." He smiled and Jack smiled back. He seemed like a perfectly nice man who would take care of Ianto, but that didn't help to the fact he couldn't figure out why Ianto had seemed so terrified, but then again he could have read the youngers expressions wrong.

"That's alright I suppose we should have let you know that we were going to the park."

"Yes, next time I wouldn't mind knowing and don't worry I'll make sure that he's alright," Ianto's Dad walked over to his son and placed an arm around him, "I'm sure we've got some paracetamol somewhere that he can take."

"Alright well now that your home I'll be off then." Jack replied before he started to make his way out of the room. He turned around when he was in the kitchen's doorway and if he had done so a second earlier he would have seen Ianto try to get his father away from him. "Bye Ianto, I'll see you tomorrow if you're feeling better."

"Bye." Ianto replied with a small smile as Jack left. He didn't really want to say anything, but knew that his Dad liked good manners. He was lucky that he knew his Dad so well for that had taught him to never let him now his friend's names.

As soon as the door closed Ianto felt happy that Jack was out of the way and had barely seemed to notice the awkwardness that was present between him and his Dad, but also sad that he hadn't and that he was now completely alone.

He guessed that his Dad was just too good an actor even for Jack.

Ianto's gaze drifted to his Dad's friend. The pair had worked together for three years now and always went out for drinks whenever they could. Ian was someone that Ianto hated. He was scared of him just like he was his Dad, because Ian never stopped the man, but joined in and then left smiling and agreed to never tell a soul.

Neither of them looked completely drunk, however Ianto thought that sometimes their current state was worse than that. He thought back to earlier when he and Jack had walked up the drive and there had been two cars.

At the time Ianto had perceived it be from his aching head and down had put it to double vision, however it was obvious to him now that it was Ian's car.

"Does he know?" His Dad asked him drawing him from his thoughts.

"Know what?" Ianto replied not quite getting what his Dad was talking about.

"He mentioned you being ill does he know?"

"Does Jack know about what?"

"About this," He replied pointing to the cuts on Ianto's cheek while leaning in so close that Ianto could smell the alcohol on his breath, "Did you tell him?"

"No I didn't." Ianto replied holding a stiff upper lip determined not to let his Dad win this argument.

"Did you tell anyone at all?"

"No I never told anyone anything."

"Good. I believe you." Ianto let out a sigh of relief at the fact that his Dad believed him knowing that would save him some amount of pain.

"So what's made you ill then?" He asked sitting down. Ian come over and joined him with two cans of beer before both of them stared at him.

"Probably when you banged by head on the bannister and when you threw that bottle onto the floor." Ianto had only mumbled it, but it was clear that both of them had heard him.

"What's wrong with ya then?" Ian asked before taking a swig of his beer. Ianto noticed his Dad doing the same.

"Headache."

"Well you know what's good for headaches don't you." Dread rose up inside of Ianto as his Dad stood up and walked over to one of the cupboards and pulled out a packet of paracetamol. A hand pulled him up from the chair and chucked four of the tablets down his throat, forcing him to swallow them before letting go, allowing him to fall to the floor.

His head slammed onto the kitchen floor and his sight began to blur again then he heard laughter and footsteps and then nothing.

* * *

Toshiko strolled along from her house and stopped outside of Ianto's. She had noticed his Dad's car while she had been waiting for two minutes before the front door opened. However the first thing struck her was that it wasn't Ianto who was making his way towards her, but his Dad.

"Good morning Mr Jones," She started giving him a light smile, "Do you know if Ianto's ready or how long he's going to be?"

"He's not coming into school today I'm afraid as he's not very well." Toshiko knew that her smile had faded, "He would have texted you, but his phones battery died and he hasn't had time to charged it yet."

"Oh okay let him know I said to get well soon."

"Of course." He replied before making his way back inside. Toshiko had never met Ianto's Dad before, but had quickly decided that he seemed like a nice caring man.

Toshiko walked on her own until she met Gwen, Rhys, Dav and Banana, explaining to them what she had been told by Ianto's Dad. The five of them had continued walking with conversation added in this time until they met up with Owen and Jack.

Owen and Ianto weren't the best of friends, but that didn't stop him from looking thoroughly confused at the fact that Ianto wasn't with them.

"Where's Ianto?" He asked before Jack could get out the same question.

"His Dad spoke to me this morning and said that he wasn't feeling very well, so he was staying home from school and that his phones battery was dead, so he couldn't text us."

"He wasn't very well yesterday when I walked him home." All of the group's eyes looked to Jack in slight confusion, "We went to the park after school."

"I've never actually met Ianto's Dad." Owen said as he walked next to Tosh and Jack.

"He's a nice man." Toshiko replied and Jack just decided to say nothing while he thought through what Tosh had told them. Ianto being ill he knew was true; however there was a factor that just didn't quite add up.

When they reached school Jack knew that the Thursday would go by much slower than normal without Ianto here and even though the only lesson that they would have had together was English he would have been able to spend break and lunch time with him.

Tutor time was partly eventful when Owen was told that the head teacher wanted see him, because of how he always wore his uniform – especially his tie, which was always undone and just draped around his neck – during his first lesson and Jack decided that during German he would be able to speak to Tosh on his own.

In German Jack sat next to Tosh in the empty seat where Owen would usually sit and turned to face her to talk while they waited for their German teacher.

"Tosh did Ianto's Dad seem slightly aggressive to you?"

"No he seemed like a really caring man." Tosh looked at him slightly confused, "Why do you ask Jack?"

"No particular reason it's just that-" Jack cut himself off, wondering whether it was wise for him to continue, "Oh it doesn't matter."

"Are you sure Jack? I won't tell anyone if you tell me what it is."

"It's nothing, just Ianto always makes sure that his phone's charged you know." He told her before turning to face the front as their teacher walked in. Tosh did the same, but when she thought it over she realised that Jack was right.

Ianto never let his phone die.

* * *

When he'd blinked his eyes open he had heard his Dad talking to Tosh. From that he gathered that he was meant to be walking to school. He headed to the window and tried to look out of the window at her to gain her attention, however she never looked up at him.

He made his way over to the door and tried to pull it open to go downstairs, but only to find it locked. This made him panic slightly. After all the last time his Dad had locked him in was when he had gone out with Ian – for almost three whole days.

Ianto moved towards his bed and began searching for his mobile. He was still in his school uniform and his rucksack was up here as well, so he figured that the phone was here to. He found the phone, however he couldn't turn it on as the battery had been removed from it.

The door knob turned and the door opened to reveal his Dad. The two stared at each other with expressions showing the mutual hatred that was between them.

"How did you sleep?"

"I'm assuming from the way you're smiling, not very well." Ianto had learned to know what all of his Dad's smiles meant and this one meant that he and Ian must have had fun pushing him around while he was completely out of it.

His head felt better and the cuts on his cheek where healing from what he could see in the only mirror that he had in the room, however he could also see that they had been bleeding again. Apart from that he could see no obvious form of any other injury, but that didn't mean he wasn't still feeling hurt.

"I'm off to work, so I came up to lock the window." Ianto mentally cursed himself for not checking as to whether the window was unlocked or not. His Dad walked over to lock it and Ianto noticed his phone's battery in his Dad's jacket pocket.

He had to think quickly and that was a trait that he always thanked himself for having and being able to do. He managed to think of something and while his Dad was looking away he jumped at him, grabbing onto him.

His Dad tried to reach around and grab him, but Ianto was trying his best to stay out of the way, while he attempted to get the battery. A moment later he managed to grip it and pull the hand that held it behind his back. His Dad managed to push him to the floor once he was only holding onto the man with one hand.

Ianto hid the battery behind his back and watched his Dad's movements. He didn't throw a punch or kick him, but instead spoke to him.

"By the way that school trip to the museum on Monday, you won't actually be going on it." Once he was sure that he had securely locked the window he walked right past Ianto and out of the bed room door, locking it and Ianto didn't once try to follow him as there was just no point to it.

He would be the one who ended up injured not his Dad.

Carefully he pulled his hand from behind his back and shuffled back over to his bed. He picked up his phone and put the battery back in before turning it on. He smiled when he saw that it was still working, but knew that he had to work quickly as his Dad would figure out that the battery was missing and come home.

So as quickly as he could manage he began texting the one person he could think that he could trust not to fail. From the bottom draw in his bedroom he pulled out the thing that he had so many copies off and flicked to page 546.

* * *

Jack was sat in English when his phone went off. He realised that he hadn't put it on silent and in the silent English class room everyone had heard the noise, Mr Forford included.

"Who's mobile phone was that?" No one said anything in reply, "Is anyone going to own up or do I have to confiscate them all?"

While he was speaking Jack had checked to see who the text was from – Ianto. When he'd looked up and looked towards Mr Forfords desk he noticed Owen mouthing something to him. All of them had taught themselves to lip read at the beginning of secondary school and at these times it came in helpful.

Jack could tell that Owen was saying _'who texted you?'_ Jack mouthed back _'Ianto,' _to Owen who obviously understood him when he suddenly raised a hand.

"Yes Owen." Mr Forford said with an exasperated sigh. It was known to most that Owen was not his favourite student to teach.

"It was my mobile Sir. Here you had better take it." Most of the class were completely shocked and as soon as the lesson ended the fact that Owen Harper had willing handed over his phone to Mr Forford was all over face book.

Jack had left the room in a rush, telling the group that he would see them all later. Owen knew that he would see him in Maths and in RE with Rhys. Gwen and Tosh explained that they would see them at lunch. All of them hoped as Jack ran off that he would fill them in as to what was going on.

Owen felt a small sense of pride being the only one in the group to know that it was Ianto who had texted Jack. Not that he told any of them.

Jack had been relieved when Owen had handed his phone over to cover him. As soon as the lesson was over he read the text and decided that he needed to go somewhere. So telling the rest of the group that he would see them later he ran off in the direction of one of Ianto's favourite places.

The school library.

John Davies was surprised to see Jack rush in at break. He knew that the boy was a friend of Ianto's, but to see him here on his own at break was not something that he had seen before.

"If you're looking for Ianto, I'm afraid he's not here."

"I know he's not very well, but I need to borrow something." Jack replied as he made his way over to the main desk.

"What do you need to borrow?"

"A Dictionary." Jack wasn't sure if that was exactly right, but he could only assume that it was.

"A row across from the music books where you found Ianto the other day."

"Okay thanks," Jack told him before dashing up the stairs. Before he went completely out of sight he stopped and looked down at John, "I might not make it to maths." He could have sworn that he saw John smile slightly.

"Alright I'll send a message since you seem to be in a rush."

"Thanks I really am." Jack knew that he wasn't lying as he actually was.

* * *

Ianto had heard the car pull up and the front door slamming shut and had sent the message, even though it wasn't actually finished yet. He turned off the phone and pulled the battery out, chucking it into the bottom of his rucksack and placing the book back in his bottom draw.

He then leaned behind him and placed the phone onto this bed before making it look like he had been doing his homework. He managed to cover his tracks just in time as he recognised that his Dad was unlocking the bed room door.

"Right where is it?"

"Where's what?"

"Don't play stupid with me Ianto."

"I'm not. I have no clue what you're talking about." His Dad headed over towards his bed and picked the mobile phone up from the bed covers. He flipped it over to see that the battery wasn't there and looked at Ianto who was trying his best not to laugh at the fact that he had just outsmarted his own Dad.

"Right well you can return to school on Monday. You're staying here all weekend if I have to keep you under lock and key until I find that battery and as punishment for inviting your little friend back here, going to the park after school and coming home late. I'll be phoning into work to tell them that I have to look after my ill son. I'm sure that Ian will take my shifts if I buy him a drink."

Ianto watched as he left the room and waited until the door had been locked and the footsteps had been heard that he was sure that his Dad had made his way down the stairs and into the lounge or the kitchen.

He reached back for the mobile, but couldn't find it. He turned his whole body and saw that it wasn't there anymore. His Dad hadn't put it back down on the bed like Ianto had thought he had done, but instead he had taken it with him when he had left the room.

Ianto sighed and slouched back down – doing one of his pet hates in the process – before continuing with the homework that he had just started. After all he was getting the feeling that he would have it all done by the time he was allowed to return to school by his Dad.

Even that would be better than being stuck here in a permanent danger zone, whether he was allowed on the trip to the museum or not.

* * *

Jack had found a dictionary pretty quickly when he had looked through the selves properly rather than just quickly skimming through them. He sat down in the corner where he had found Ianto the other day and picked his phone out of his military styled coat pocket.

He then opened the text from Ianto and re-read it properly now that he was sat down in a quiet surrounding. He read it twice before opening the dictionary trying to understand what Ianto meant as he could be quite cleaver when he wanted to be, but this was completely new to Jack.

The text read;

_English Definition_

_546 BW1_

_338 BW19_

559 W1

733 BW8

891 BW5

604 BW9

461 BW 20

872 BW29

61 BW8

It had (at first) confused Jack to no ends, but he guessed that the words English and definition were mention to point him towards a dictionary. It was moving into what was supposed to be his maths lesson and he didn't care as he started to work out what the numerous numbers and w's could mean.

The first thing that he tried was page numbers, however the dictionary only had six hundred pages. He didn't really know what else it could be, so he picked up his bag and headed back downstairs.

He thought that John looked slightly shocked to see him back so soon, especially when he had asked for a note to allow him miss at least part of his maths lesson.

"Everything alright?"

"Yeah I was wondering do we have a dictionary here that has like nine hundred pages?"

John looked thoughtful for a moment before he reached down beside him and pulled out a box that had dictionaries written on the side of it in black permanent marker. He flipped through a few before finding one that had over the amount of nine hundred pages and handed it to Jack, explaining that he didn't keep the older editions out on the shelves.

Jack took the dictionary and nodded his thanks before leaving. He was walking to maths and flipping through it as he made his way to the main building. Jack was deciding to follow through with his original idea of them being page numbers.

He managed to find page five hundred and forty six pretty quickly and looked at the first bold word that was on the left hand side.

**Not.**

Jack looked back at the text for the next number and then did the same thing. He didn't go to maths in the end, but instead sat on the netball courts decoding Ianto's message, finding it easy now that he knew what Ianto was getting at.

At lunch time Jack was extremely distant from the others after decoding Ianto's message he knew that Ianto couldn't still be ill like he was last night, but something had to have happened to make him send Jack this text in a coded format rather than in words. Obviously Ianto feared that someone would be able to read the words too easily, so he had to send it like this.

Although Jack couldn't be sure as to what he feared.

Owen was the first to speak to him at lunch and even when he did it was about time that they started going to their last lessons. Owen hung back to wait for Jack to finish talking to him, not really caring if he ended up late for art.

"So why are you worried Jack. It's Ianto he's always taken care of himself."

"Yeah but he sent me this text message." At this point Jack handed Owen his phone open on the message. He could see Owen looking at it with confusion on his face.

"What's it mean? Just looks like a bunch of numbers and BW's apart from the obvious words English and definition."

"Yeah well I figured out what it meant and it says that he's _'Not going on school trip. Phone likely to be' _and that was it."

"I wouldn't worry Jack. He'll probably be back in school tomorrow you know what he's like." And with that Owen walked off, leaving Jack alone in the middle of the netball courts.

Friday was horrible and Jack couldn't even think of what school would be like if Ianto didn't return soon. He spent his whole day sulking and thinking over Ianto's text message. He spoke to Tosh, who promised to ask his Dad how Ianto was when she walked past his house and talk to him later, but that did nothing to reassure Jack that he hadn't made a mistake in leaving Ianto's house on Wednesday.

Tosh called him later that night and told him that his Dad said that Ianto had lost his voice. She asked about Ianto's phone, but his Dad told her that it was broken – even though Jack knew that wasn't true – and to add to that Tosh was sure that she had seen Ianto's phone in his Dad's jacket pocket.

All weekend Jack panicked about Ianto's health and whether he was alright. He tried to contact him in every way that he could think of, but Ianto didn't reply to his texts, rejected his calls and ignored him when he emailed him or sent him online messages.

Monday though was a different story.

* * *

Alright I will have the next chapter up Friday evening or Saturday morning for all you. Thanks for reading, please review and thanks for reviewing.


	5. Chapter 5

Sorry it's slightly later, but I hope that the chapter makes up for that. Thank you for the nineteen reviews, nine favourites and twenty four alerts. Anyway on with the chapter.

* * *

Ianto had spent his entire weekend stuck in his own solitude. His laptop had been taken out of the room, his Dad too afraid that he would use Face book or his email to contact someone.

He could already guess that when he got the device back his inbox would be full of emails from Jack and probably Tosh as well as maybe a few from Gwen and Owen if he was really being missed – although he doubted that most of them would really care.

Ianto really wished that his Dad would have let him go on the school trip, but he was smart enough to know that there was no chance of that happening.

The whole weekend he spent curled up doing nothing, hoping that Jack had managed to get his message. He also knew Jack well enough to know that if he had received it, he would have figured it out by now. He only wished that he would be out of here soon and be able to ask Jack some more about that sleep over he was talking about the other day in the park.

* * *

Jack made his way to meet Owen by the corner shop. Last night he had started to try phoning Ianto, however his calls were all rejected, so he rang the home number twice – slightly nervous having never actually rang Ianto's home number before: due to Ianto always telling him not to.

But both of those calls hadn't been answered which had only increase Jack's level of worry.

He had decided to leave home early that morning, so that he may have some time to head round to Ianto's, however when he reached the corner he noticed that Owen, Gwen, Tosh and Rhys were already stood there waiting for him.

Tosh gave him a light smile, but Jack could tell that there was nothing really behind it. One look at her slightly red eyes was enough to tell him that she had been crying. Owen was distancing himself from her and was leaning against the exterior of the shop. Gwen was stood next to Rhys, close to Tosh, which meant that she had been comforting her from what Jack could guess.

They all started walking and Jack stayed close to Rhys for a minute to ask him what had happened. He looked over at Owen dangerously when Rhys had finished explaining. He turned to Tosh after letting Rhys head back over to Gwen.

Toshiko slowed down, so that she and Jack were walking behind the other three – who were still excluding Owen from their conversation; not that he looked like he particularly cared – so that they had been space to talk about Ianto.

"I couldn't see him all weekend and he still isn't coming into school today from what that text he sent you said.."

"Can I just ask why you were all here earlier than usual?"

Tosh looked at him for a moment and Jack felt like a bit of an idiot, almost like he had forgotten something that he should have remembered.

"School trip Jack," Tosh replied in answer to his question, "It did say on the letter."

"Oh yeah sorry I completely forgot, I was too busy worrying about Ianto."

"Don't worry I would have forgotten to be early as well if my Mum hadn't remembered to remind me." She paused, "Did he answer your calls?"

"No. Not even the calls that I made to his landline phone. His Dad didn't even answer."

"Maybe he became ill as well?" Tosh suggested.

"I don't know. It's possible," Jack suddenly stopped walking and Tosh looked back at him, having stopped a few steps ahead of him, "Keep going I'll meet you at school." With that said he ran off back in the opposite direction towards Ianto's house.

* * *

Owen was particularly annoyed at having to be up earlier than usual. He knew that he could have not gone on the school trip, but he wanted to go, especially if it meant avoiding lessons for a whole day. And then his Mum was getting on his nerves to add to those factors.

Jack hadn't met up with him yet when Tosh, Gwen and Rhys came around the corner talking and smiling happily. One of the first things that Owen noticed was that there was still no Ianto with them.

"Where's Ianto?" He called out, although he was sure that he knew the answer to that, "He's never missed more than one day of school and that was last year for Lisa's funeral." He was sent daggers from Gwen and Tosh at the mention of Lisa's name.

After saying their usual _'hellos'_ and _'good mornings' _to each other they waited for Jack. Tosh was going on about this thing that she'd heard on the news about a guy who broke the codes of a research facility and stole a lot of their stuff.

Owen couldn't care less for it.

Gwen and Rhys were talking to each other a minute later, seeing how Tosh had turned to face Owen, meaning that she wanted to speak to him and him alone. Owen sighed, but that didn't seem to make Tosh not want to speak to him.

"Owen I was thinking maybe tomorrow if you wanted to of course that we could go to a games centre or something like that?"

"Yeah that sounds like a nice idea Tosh." Toshiko's face turned into a smile, "But if I was going to do that, then it wouldn't be with you." That was when her smile dropped and Gwen and Rhys turned themselves back into the conversation.

"Well is there something else that you might prefer to do?"

"There are a lot of things that I would prefer to do and a lot of them don't involve you."

"Oh well if you ever wanted to I don't know chat maybe?" It was hurtful to see how much Tosh was trying to get Owen to go on some kind of date with her.

"Chatting to you would be pointless."

"Don't listen to him Tosh." Gwen butted in as she noticed a few tears fall from Tosh eyes.

"Yeah don't listen to me Tosh."

Jack had arrived at that point, so the conversation had stopped and it was then that Owen realised exactly what he had said and found that he regretted every word of it now.

They had started walking and he ignored the rest of the group until he looked back to find that Jack had disappeared.

* * *

Jack walked up to Ianto's front door purposely. He knocked with the same amount of purpose as he had used to run here. There was a car in the drive way and he spent time looking around while he was waiting for the door to be opened.

He looked at every window and was sure that he had seen curtains move and maybe even heard something banging against the window pane. He waited ages for an answer, but never got one. He pulled his mobile out of his pocket and tried to ring Ianto's mobile.

However this time his call wasn't rejected, but it went through to his answer phone, so Jack left a message before running back off to get to school, telling himself that he would come back later.

* * *

Ianto had seen Jack arrived and had banged on the window pane, however his Dad had obviously seen Jack's arrival to and had come up the stairs to his room and pulled him away from the window. Next Ianto's mobile phone rang from inside his Dad's jacket pocket. The man let it go through to his answering message and Ianto listened to the message that Jack left.

'_Hey Ianto, I was wondering how you were, when you're coming back to school you know just stuff like that, but I'll come back later this afternoon since now's obviously not a good time.'_

As he sat down onto his bed his heart sank as he knew that Jack would be walking away from the house about now and heading to school.

"Do you know how many times he's called you?" His Dad asked, but Ianto didn't both answering, because he knew that the question was intended to be a rhetorical one, "Twice on the landline and more than ten times on your mobile."

Ianto was wondering why his Dad was bothering to even tell him any of this, unless he knew. He had Ianto's phone all weekend that was easily enough time to look through it all and find any clues towards some form communication that he may have had with anyone.

His Dad had already found the battery later on last Friday evening.

"He also sent you about twenty something texts and guess what I found in your sent messages box."

"I don't know some texts." Ianto replied slightly sarcastically, which at this moment in time probably wasn't the best of ideas.

"Yes one that you sent to him on Friday." Silence fell between them and Ianto looked down at the floor, not wanting to meet his Dad's gaze. While he was looking down though he noticed something, which after a moment for realisation had him cursing himself for being so stupid.

How did he not notice the slightly open draw and missing dictionary? That instantly brought his head back up.

"You didn't really think that I was that stupid did you?" Ianto was extremely tempted to answer that, but managed to refrain himself from doing so, "You went against everything that I ever told you, because I'm sure I told you not to tell anyone if you didn't want to face the consequences."

"How bad could the consequences be?" Ianto question as he stood back up off of the bed, "You've already injure me so many times, I don't think there's all that much left that you haven't done to me."

"There's always something else Ianto." From the tone of voice his Dad was using, Ianto started to panic, "There is always something else."

* * *

Jack had arrived about ten minutes later than the rest of the group had, but he was still five minutes early. When their form tutor walked in they took a register before they headed outside. Jack and Rhys's History teacher was the member of staff leading the trip. A few substitute teachers came with them.

They had been told to leave everything in school apart from their coats in case it started raining, however Jack decided to take his mobile with him just in case Ianto had received his message and wanted to call him back.

The group had been told the exhibitions that they would be looking at that day. The Titanic, slave labour, medieval times, dinosaurs and something else that Jack hadn't been paying too much attention to, but he was going to see it later anyway, so he didn't think that it mattered too much.

As they looked at the first exhibit – which was on slave labour – Jack couldn't help, but think that Ianto would like to see the dinosaur one.

He was glad when they moved on from that exhibit to look at a new one. Tosh and Gwen had looked like they were going to be sick and even Owen and Rhys had looked disgusted. Jack couldn't say that he felt too different from them.

The next exhibit was the one on the dinosaurs and Jack was annoyed that they weren't giving them too much time to look around at this one saying that the other three were a bit more import, so they needed much more time to see those and have a chat given to them by some of the museum staff.

But looking around Jack could see that the exhibit might be worth while if you had enough time to look at everything. From what he looked at he knew that Ianto would miss seeing it, especially the stuff about the Pterodactyls and made a note in his mind to bring him there first chance he got to see it.

Tosh made her way over to him and followed his gaze as he looked up at the fake Pterodactyl that they had in here.

"Ianto would like to see this." She turned to face him, "It's a shame he's missing this. He hasn't been on any school trips since we all came to secondary school."

"Yeah I miss his company on these sorts of events." When he spoke of Ianto Tosh could hear the worry that was carried in the undertone of his voice.

"I think even Owen's missing him." Tosh replied looking slightly in Owen's direction. He was stood alone looking at a t-rex, "He asked about him this morning before… Well you know."

"Yeah Rhys told me. He doesn't mean it though you know Tosh."

"Well he could easily fool me, because I believed him." Jack didn't really know what to say in reply to that without maybe really upsetting Toshiko or saying something against Owen that could – if Owen ever found out – cause a fight between the two of them and Jack didn't really want that. However he didn't really need to say anything at all as Tosh spoke first.

"I guess some people are meant to have someone and some aren't." At the end of her sentence she looked over at Gwen and Rhys, who were smiling happily as they looked at the smallest dinosaur that had ever lived.

"I mean Owen had Diane, Ianto had Lisa and I had Mary at one point, do you remember Mary?" She asked Jack at the same time as reminding him of the others. Their little group weren't very lucky with the whole maintaining a relationship thing as only Gwen's was actually working at the minute.

Mary had jumped of a building after Tosh had refused to betray her friends - it had taken Toshiko quite some time to get over that – and afterwards Owen hadn't been very helpful at all. Ianto had dropped round though and made her coffee at one point and had taken her out for the day for fresh air.

Jack thought back to Lisa while Tosh thought about Mary. Lisa had gone to London two years ago after they had all finished year seven. She and Ianto (not wishing to break up) had decided to give a long distance relationship thing a try. It had been working – at least in Jack's opinion – better than when Lisa had actually lived in Wales.

She had barely even been to Ianto's house and Jack was beginning to wonder even more now as to why that actually was. Last year about four weeks before they finished year nine, Ianto – after not hearing from Lisa for about three weeks – was informed that she was dead, after going missing. Ianto was devastated and his relationship was over without him having much of a say in the matter.

Although he probably shouldn't be, Jack was happy that Ianto was now single as it gave him a chance to actually tell Ianto how he felt.

* * *

Owen hadn't had any trouble overhearing Jack and Tosh's conversation. He knew that his name was mentioned in part of it as well as Diane's. His Mum had almost skinned him when she had found out about the extents to their relationship and Tosh had been extremely upset about the _'thing' _that he and Diane had shared.

He had been annoyed when she had decided to leave him to go to Canada, even though she promised to be back in two to three weeks, however she never even got to Canada, let alone come back. She had disappeared along with the plane, her parents and the rest of the passengers and crew that had been on board the flight. Most people had just presumed them all to be dead after ten days of searching.

Then he had been in even more trouble with his Mum when he ended up getting into a lot of fights, especially one particular one with a boy called Mark Lynch to which he had suffered a black eye and a broken shoulder. He was still finding it hard to deal with the fact that Diane had died a year ago last month.

When they moved onto the next exhibit he found himself - unconsciously - sticking nearer to Toshiko.

* * *

There group moved on to look at the next exhibit and have the first of the three talks that they were going to be getting on the three main topics that they would be studying this year.

They were looking at something about the Titanic when Jack's phone rang and everyone turned to him. Owen was still annoyed about his mobile phone being confiscated last Thursday and knew that he couldn't get Jack out of it this time and nor could Gwen, Tosh or Rhys as none of them had actually brought their phones with them.

Everyone turned to Jack. His History teacher stepped forward and held out a hand in silent asking for the phone. Jack reluctantly pulled it out of his pocket and handed it over to the teacher. He caught the number though before he let go of it and was disappointed that Ianto had chosen now of all times to ring him.

But then it was his fault for not putting the mobile phone on silent after all.

"When can I have it back?" Jack asked desperately.

"We'll see, I might let you have it at the end of the day, but if not it will be given back to you on Wednesday." Jack sighed in annoyance as they continued on from the Titanic exhibit. He also didn't miss the way that John looked at him.

Jack just hoped that if Ianto really needed to contact him that he would find another way.

* * *

Ianto struggled against his Dad's grip as he was roughly dragged out of the house. He slipped his hand into his Dad's jacket pocket and placed it in his own. His Dad was too busy trying to stop him from running off and focussing on no one seeing them to even notice as he shoved Ianto into the car and did up the seat belt.

While he made it round to the driver's side, Ianto pulled the phone out of his pocket and quickly pulled up a blank text message. He began to type words into it whenever he could without his Dad seeing as he drove towards the A four hundred and seventy.

Ianto was so unsure as to what his Dad was going to do that he didn't think about even saying anything while they drove, but just watched the way that they went.

He saw that they had arrived at the interchange that allowed you to go past the M four if you were driving along Northern Avenue and vice versa if you were on the M four. They drove straight across sticking to the A four hundred and seventy.

You were meant to go at certain speeds on road like this as well as staying in certain lanes and let's just say that Ianto didn't see that happening when his Dad was driving. After some safe driving for about two minutes, Ianto felt the car moving over slightly and then a second later there was a loud noise as the car crashed into the other lane.

Ianto felt himself losing his grip on the phone before he heard it clatter onto the bottom of the car floor and then everything went black.

* * *

Alright next update will be Monday or Tuesday. I hope that you liked this chapter, thanks for reading, please reviewing and thanks for reviewing.


	6. Chapter 6

Okay I have exams this week, but I was still determined to get this chapter up today, so here it is.

* * *

Sirens were heard all around the area of the road. Numerous police cars were dotted around, blocking of the strip of road where the accident had occurred. Two cars had been involved in the end, one of which was Ianto's. His car had been in the worst state and the other woman and her three children were all alright – all be it slightly shocked – but alright.

The woman was giving over her story about being late to take her children to school, but she wasn't really relevant and the police were much more interested in hearing Ianto's Dad side of the story as according to her, it was his car that had driven into hers.

Four paramedics were attending to the scene; two per person. One set was busy with Ianto's Dad, who had been conscious until a few minutes ago, but from what they could tell, he didn't have a concussion.

The other two were busy with Ianto who was in a considerably worse state than his Dad. Ianto hadn't been conscious since the car had crashed and most of the blood around the scene was his. They had loaded his Dad into one ambulance and taken him away to St. Helens Hospital quite soon after they had found him.

Ianto had followed a few minutes later after they had managed to get him into a more stable condition that he could travel in.

One of the paramedics with him, Barry Redford, had managed to find a mobile phone near the boy. He was sat beside him wondering if the phone still worked. From where it had been found he presumed that it had belonged to the kid and that he had been texting someone when the car crashed.

After looking the phone over he found the lock button and tried that first to see if the phone was still on, which it was, and the moment he unlocked the screen a message box came up. It was the drafts box of the phone and it was open on what looked to be a half-finished text message.

Some of the wording was incorrect, but then texting in a moving car wasn't something that everyone found easy. Barry hadn't known that Ianto had been forced to text secretly down the side of the car door.

The message read;

_Phonr Jackm Harkness ob mobile id I unconscipus. Nu,ber is 0700900416._

Barry couldn't be sure if the number was even correct, but he tried it anyway. He rang from the kid's phone, guessing that he might be more likely to get an answer that way. The phone rang before it went through to an answer message.

He sighed and slipped the phone into his pocket as they pulled into the hospital car park. Ianto went straight through into intensive care and Barry Redford turned to Joe Donald who had accompanied him handing him the mobile phone. He walked off towards the reception and headed behind moving over to one of their receptionists.

"Excuse me, can we look up a Jack Harkness please?"

* * *

John had been edging his way closer to Jack throughout the whole talk that they were having the medieval times. Jack was thoroughly glad when they were allowed to stop for lunch before they had a look around that exhibit. He was becoming impatient.

Ianto hadn't called back and even if he had then Jack wouldn't have known as his phone was no longer in his possession.

Owen, Gwen and Rhys's laughter broke him out of his thoughts. He looked at his friends who were all laughing at something that Rhys had just said, apart from Toshiko who was going for the simple smile approach.

During lunch time John kept his distance and just as they began to pack up their things to continue looking around, Jack's History Teacher, Mrs Harris called him over to the museum's reception desk. She was holding a telephone in her hand and looked slightly solemn as she spoke, despite her hate for Jack.

"Phone call for you," Jack took the phone from her and leaned against the reception desk, "Someone will bring you over to join us when you are finished, so that you don't get lost."

She called out to the rest of the group who had most of their attention focussed on their own conversations still.

"Right everyone, we're going to move on now." Most of the class followed, but Jack could see the eyes of Tosh, Owen, Gwen and Rhys linger on him for a second longer before they to walked off with the rest of their year.

He didn't fail to notice that John had done the same.

Afterwards he turned his attention over to the phone call. No one had given him any inclination as to who it was that was phoning him though.

"Hello?"

"Hello am I speaking to a Jack Harkness?" Replied a female voice from the other side of the line.

"Yes you are. Can I ask who this is calling please?" He asked wondering why anyone would want to speak to him. Not even his parents rang him.

"I'm calling from St. Helen's Hospital. We have reason to believe that we have someone here who know's you'" Jack suddenly became very nervous. If his parents were returning to Wales then they always told him, but they weren't so that meant it could only really be one other person.

"A Ianto Jones left a text message on his phone saying to contact you from what we managed to interpret from it."

Jack's heart sank. Firstly Ianto had, once again, left another message that people didn't quite understand, secondly Jack wished that he had just answered Ianto's phone call instead of handing the mobile phone over and thirdly he had no clue what had happened to his younger friend.

"Um can I ask what happened to him?" He tried to make his voice still sound as strong as it had to begin with.

"He was involved in a car accident with his Dad on the M four earlier." Jack didn't say anything, so she continued, "We found what we are presuming to be his phone and there was that message. It wasn't very clear and some of the spelling was wrong, but it did say your name and your mobile number which we did try, but we didn't get an answer."

The Jack knew who had been trying to ring his mobile. It had shown up as Ianto's caller id, but that was because they had called him on Ianto's phone.

"Sorry I'm at school, well a museum actually, but I think you already know that."

"Yes we looked up who you were thinking that you might be related to him."

"Sorry I'm not, but I am his best friend." Jack didn't quite know whether that was true or not. Was he more to Ianto than a best friend? He knew that he certainly wanted to be.

"I guess you must be important if he wanted you to be contacted."

"Could I come and see him please?

"Yes I think he would like that."

"He's awake?" Jack asked slightly confused.

"No I'm just guessing. But if that's alright with your school then I don't see why you can't. I'll make a note that you'll be coming in."

"Thank you." Jack replied before putting the phone down and leaving the reception. He didn't need anyone to show him where to go, because he remembered it. When he joined the group his friends were desperate to speak to him, but he ignored them for a moment, heading over instead to his teacher.

"Can I go to the hospital please? Ianto's been in an accident." Jack didn't't say any more, but just waited for her to reply.

"Alright, but I'm having you dropped their by a teacher." She pulled out her own mobile as well as Jack's and he smiled as she handed it back, "Considering your current circumstances I will make an exception."

Jack couldn't be bothered to thank her, but watched as she walked over to Ms Terry - a new student teacher for history - and started to talk to her, most likely asking if she would drop Jack to the hospital. Ms Terry nodded before moving to grab her coat ad car keys.

As he left the building he didn't miss the numerous looks that his year group sent him. The car journey was quiet and didn't take them too long - only about thirteen minutes - and Jack spent the time spending a copy of the same text to Tosh, Gwen and Rhys. He was desperate to know how Ianto was doing and as soon as the car had stopped he was gone in a flash.

He headed straight for the reception desk and waited until he was spoken too, which didn't take too long.

"How can I help you?"

"I'm here to see a Ianto Jones. He was brought in earlier this morning with his Dad after a car crash I believe I was told."

"Yes I believe that you will be allowed to see him. Can I ask are you a Jack Harkness?"

"Yes I am." Jack replied.

"Alright hang on let me just give you the room and floor details." She typed away on her computer for a minute before giving him the room details and then allowed him to walk off.

Outside of the room was a doctor, who Jack presumed was waiting to see him. So he came to a stop to face the man and began his introduction.

"Hello, I'm Jack Harkness, I'm here to see Ianto Jones."

"Ah I was told that you would be coming to visit. I'm his doctor, John Smith." He extended a hand which Jack shook with a small smile; the man seemed to be very nice.

"So how is he? I don't really know what fully happened, but I believe that he was with his Dad at the time of the accident, is that right?"

"Yes, his Dad is unconscious at the minute, but that' s because of the bump that he took to the head, he also had a chipped shoulder bone, but that should heal with some rest at home for a little while." Jack nodded his head and wondered whether Ianto would be alright if his Dad had that little injuries (although even he knew that had injuries could be one of the worst kinds).

"Now Ianto seemed to have taken the brunt of the crash, but he is conscious." Jack couldn't explain the relief that washed over him at hearing that Ianto was conscious.

"He seemed to have been lucky not to take an injury to his head, but he has suffered a lot of other injuries. He has whiplash across his neck, a fractured wrist, two broken ribs, compressed stomach and abdominal tissue and a broken ankle." Jack nodded his head again.

"Okay can I ask exactly what is compressed stomach and abdominal tissue?"

"Well usually in car accidents when a force is put on a part of the body made up of fine tissue inside it compresses. It can be quite painful dependent on the location in the body that the tissue is compressed."

"Oh okay." Jack stood there silently for a moment before John spoke saying what Jack had been unsure whether to ask or not.

"Would you like to see him now?"

"Yes thank you." Jack replied before walking through the door that John now held open for him.

"I'll come back in a moment." He replied before pulling the door shut behind the school boy. Ianto hadn't looked up from the bed sheets when Jack had walked in, but it was clear to see that he was still awake.

"Ianto?" That caused the younger to look up at him, "How are you feeling?"

"Alright." Ianto's reply was simple, but Jack could tell that he wanted to say more than that to him. He made his way over to the bed and sat on the edge next to the Welsh boy and gave him a light smile.

"What's up Ianto?"

"Nothing. Why do you think something's wrong?"

"Well you've been in a car accident and you're holding back on what you say to me and I haven't seen you since Wednesday evening when you weren't very well."

"Sorry." Ianto replied. Jack felt almost frozen for a second, why did Ianto feel the need to be sorry for not being able to go to school?

"Why are you saying sorry to me Ianto? Surely I should be apologising to you.

"Why?" Ianto's voice was quiet and delicate, but Jack wasn't straining to hear it. He always heard what Ianto said even when he was talking to someone else more directly, because Ianto was important to him.

"Because I left you on Wednesday, but I'm not sure whether thou really wanted me to leave or not and this morning when I came round your house you were obviously in and I just left and now well here we are."

"You don't have to be sorry for any of that Jack, beca-" Ianto cut himself of as he started coughing. Jack reached out an arm to I'm, remembering that he had been told about Ianto having two broken ribs.

"Hey, shh, deep breaths. Take some deep breaths Ianto." He paused for a moment before speaking again, "And I can get your doctor if you like?"

"N..no I...I'm fine thanks." When Ianto looked up again, he looked straight into Jack's eyes. The two of them found themselves starring at each other having unconsciously shuffled so much closer to be in close proximity of the others personal space.

Jack closed the gap between them and leaned closer to Ianto, who copied his action before they were both lip locked, kissing each other. Ianto pulled away after a few seconds for breath, which if he hadn't injured his ribs, he would have been able to hold on for a little longer.

Jack seemed to understand that his shortness of breath was the reason, not that he didn't want to kiss him.

* * *

When the group returned to school, Toshiko, Gwen and Rhys pulled out their mobile phones to find the texts from Jack. Owen was still busy sulking about not having his phone, so he read the text off of Tosh's phone. All Jack's message simply said was that he was visiting Ianto and would fill them all in tomorrow as soon as he saw them.

"There he goes again, leaving us in the dark." Owen commented.

"Hey he was obviously worried Owen, allow him a moment that actually shows him to be human." Toshiko replied.

Gwen and Rhys seemed to agree with what she was saying and even Owen to a point. Jack didn't like showing his emotions publicly, which could sometimes lead people to say that he wasn't really human, but his obvious concern for Ianto was beginning to prove that he could be human.

"Well we'll have to wait until tomorrow then." Owen replied, slinging his bag over his shoulder and leaving their form room with the other three following.

John watched the group leave carefully. He had seen Jack leave earlier and had overheard them mentioning him going to visit Ianto and had now found himself a new known reason to hate the younger Welsh boy.

Jack liked him - obviously as more than a friend - and John couldn't really allow that to happen as he was meant to end up with Jack.

Although Ianto Jones really was a piece of Eye Candy.

Jack spent the rest of the afternoon with Ianto in what was now a slightly tense atmosphere ever since they had kissed. Ianto hadn't said that he regretted it or hated it, but Jack got the feeling that the younger hadn't really been sure of what he was doing or maybe he just wasn't over Lisa.

Or of course Jack could be wrong and it could be something else entirely.

Doctor John Smith walked back into the room to check Ianto's vitals and just ask him a few questions as well as a few for Jack to haves second person's opinion on Ianto's behaviour. From that he concluded that he could most likely send Ianto home - if all continued to go well like this - tomorrow evening. After that he left and that left Jack a little more time to talk to Ianto alone before he himself headed home.

"So the museum?" Ianto asked, using short talk to insure that he didn't lose his breath and start coughing again as that severely impacted on how well he felt.

"It was good. Some of it was a little boring, especially when the museum guides talked on and on about things that they had already said about ten times." Ianto laughed slightly at that.

"But I have to take you there when you get out of here. We saw this exhibit on dinosaurs and I just know that you'll like that."

"Sounds like fun."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure that it is." Ianto couldn't help but smile, so Jack did to.

* * *

Ianto had become down hearted when Jack had left explaining that he would meet him the minute he was allowed back to school which Ianto had already decided along with doctor John Smith and Jack would be Wednesday.

His Doctor had been worried as to who Ianto was going to stay with to which Jack had happily volunteered to look after the younger. John Smith had gone to check whether that would be acceptable with Ianto's Dad – who had apparently woken up about an hour ago.

When he had returned both Jack and Ianto had been upset to find out that his Dad was going to arrange for Ianto's aunt to come and look after him. However Jack had become confused after looking over at Ianto, who had a clear facial expression lining his face that was telling Jack to believe that Ianto didn't believe what his Dad had told them.

The doctors had decided to keep the man in for some scans to make sure he was definitely alright, but there was a waiting line for them, so they were going to keep him in until Thursday. Ianto didn't mind having an evening at home on his own though as it might actually make a nice change for once.

Ianto's room was situated by a window that looked out on to front of the hospital. Ianto struggled to sleep that night.

The sky was grey and dull, making it the perfect mirror of the tarmac around the ambulance and bus stations that were down below: in its late evening emptiness the car park was a bleak, pointless place.

Ianto was stuck looking out into a black expense that came close enough to almost be hugging the hospital building. He wasn't scared of the dark, but he didn't like it when his Dad was around. And then there were the nightmares.

They would be stood together in a school corridor leaning against one of the walls. Occasionally she would kick her foot in slight annoyance and the minute that the other classes came out and they were joined by their friends she would be gone.

She was gone now.

Then there was her. She had been too busy with her boyfriend to notice, but the minute she did she was in for it. When she had turned nineteen three years ago and had agreed to marring her boyfriend of seven years.

At the end of the day her car crashed into a bunch of traffic.

Ianto knew it was because the breaks didn't work. He never said anything though; it wasn't really like he could unless he was willing to lose his head – or more.

Every time that he shut his eyes he saw them, especially being here in a hospital bed with a morgue full of the dead only floors away from him. Ianto felt trapped in that black expense that lingered outside as a constant reminder of who he had lost to the darkness.

When he slept he fell into it and now his world was so bleak he found it a struggle to get back up every single time just to fall back down into the same darkness that everyone else had.

So maybe he just needed someone who could bring him back.

* * *

Okay I hope that you liked this chapter, thank you for reading, please review, thank you for favouriting, alerting and reviewing. And also if you wanted to know what Ianto's text message should have said:

Phone Jack Harkness on mobile if I unconscious. Number is 0700900416.

P.S. The phone number is actually The Doctor's and I will try to update on Friday, but if not it will be Saturday.


	7. Chapter 7

Here's chapter seven, thank you for all of the reviews, favourites and alerts. And also the very last bit of the last chapter was meant to leave you slightly confused, but it will be explained in the upcoming chapters.

* * *

Jack returned to school the next day with a smile on his face. He had text Tosh early that morning telling her not to worry about meeting Ianto as he wouldn't be in school today, however he would tell her when she came into school.

He met up with Owen, who gave him a light smile as they waited for the others to join them. They waited in silence until they were joined by the rest of the group joined them. The start of the walk managed to keep that silence for a minute longer, but then Jack had questions being fired at him from left, right and centre.

By the time Jack had managed to get everyone to shut up they were heading towards the school gates. Jack was too busy talking that he didn't notice John stood against the wall.

"Look Ianto will be coming back to school tomorrow as he was involved in a car accident," Jack didn't tell them that the accident had only been yesterday, "He's not hurt too badly, so they're sending him home later today."

"Oh my God, is he alright?" Gwen asked desperately.

"Yeah he was doing well when I saw him yesterday."

"So that's why you left then." Owen stated.

"Yeah it was." Jack replied as he walked past John, who scowled at the whole group before heading off to his own form room.

The time seemed to be going quicker for Jack now that he knew Ianto was coming back to school. He spent his time in registration writing Ianto a get well soon card. All of them had maths first and went off into their separate maths groups.

Jack forced himself to stay awake and sit through a lesson on simultaneous equations with Owen looking over his shoulder almost every second to ask if he knew the answer in case their teacher picked him to answer the question.

When their teacher stopped talking near the end to allow them to write down the notes on the board, Jack found himself involved in a conversation with Owen.

"So what exactly happened to Ianto?" The young want to be doctor asked, "You said a car crash, but how?"

"I'm not exactly sure I didn't really ask for all of the details I just know that he was with his Dad and they crashed into another car on the M four."

"Oh. Well at least he's alive. Don't know what we do otherwise." Owen replied – the last comment being slightly sarcastic – but Jack could tell that Owen was actually missing Ianto; somewhere inside of his heart anyway.

Science came next and Jack remained with Owen for the duration of it, but this time he was the one coping Owen's notes down. Their teacher, Mrs Joyner told them that they would be dissecting a pig heart in the next week; not one of Jack's ideal things on his list of things to do, but Owen seemed excited enough.

At the end of science, Jack felt completely put off from eating anything.

"Why not?" Owen asked as they walked through the halls with Tosh.

"Owen I don't think a pig heart would be something that I wanted a photo of."

"Wouldn't it be cool though to have all of the pig blood and-" Owen was interrupted by Toshiko this time.

"Owen you're making me feel sick." That actually shut Owen up. Gwen and Rhys arrived shortly after and Jack asked them what he had missed at the museum although most of the replies consisted of _'nothing much,' 'it was boring' _and then a more detailed list from Tosh which Owen eventually interrupted in a tone that he knew would really annoy Toshiko.

Jack headed to drama when the bell rang. Gwen and Rhys went off in the direction of the far building that was on the other side of the netball court and Tosh made her way in that direction with them to go to Technology.

Owen headed over to the art department; finding himself being grateful for it for once.

When he got there he took a list of items from one of the store cupboards which consisted of: a sheet of A four paper; colouring pens; permanent markers and pens with different thicknesses on the tips. Afterwards he headed out onto the netball courts and began to write a get well soon message for Ianto.

Jack hadn't exactly told them all how injured Ianto was, but Owen thought that it might be nice to send a card; not that he was turning nice just because of one card – no not him.

Tosh spent her Technology lesson making Ianto a card as she was already ahead of everyone else, so she didn't really have anything to do in the way of actual school work. When they all joined together in English, Jack was called up to the front desk when he walked in. For a minute he wondered why until Mr Redford handed Jack a mobile phone.

Jack took it happily with a smile and a small thank you before heading back down to his seat. He looked to the clock happy that he only had to wait just under nineteen hours and fifty minutes to see Ianto again.

* * *

Ianto had been dropped home by a member of the hospital staff about an hour ago and he was so far enjoying the time that he had spent alone, even though it hadn't been very long. He had found his laptop easily without his Dad there and was now sat on the sofa checking his emails.

He had found the ones from Jack easily and couldn't help, but smile at the elder's concern for him. He also found one from Tosh and a joint one from Gwen and Rhys. Ianto didn't get too many emails and saved the ones that he liked to re-read. That's what he decided to do now.

In the saved message box he found emails from Rhiannon and Lisa that he had kept and was now glad that he kept a lot of Rhiannon's, even though one of them was just a massive rant that didn't really concern him, some of it did make him laugh.

Rhiannon had been dating Johnny for seven years before they both decided to get married. Ianto was more than happy for her and spent a lot of his time planning her wedding with her and Johnny.

One day at the beginning of the summer holidays, his Dad took them both to the park and ended up breaking Ianto's leg on one of the swings, no one ever really knew as it was healed by the end of the summer holidays.

Rhiannon's wedding was in two weeks' time when she let herself into the house and saw her own Dad threatening to push Ianto down the stairs. She had rushed up and pulled the two of them away from each other, keeping a firm grip on her younger brother.

She didn't say anything to anyone, mainly because he had told her not to, but Ianto knew that she would do so anyway. He was right. Rhiannon had been talking to him and his Dad had overheard them. Rhiannon was planning to have him come and live with her and Johnny after they were married and then report their Dad for child abuse.

The day of her wedding was one that Ianto would never forget. He had seen his Dad messing around with the car and had tried to stop Rhiannon leaving, but she didn't listen. She and Johnny had then been involved in a car crash which had been caused by the breaks not working.

Ianto was stupid he could put the pieces together. His Dad had tempered with the breaks deliberately.

Then there was Lisa. Whenever she and Ianto had a lesson together that finished before the others they would wait for them. Lisa was the most patient person and would occasionally kick her foot around and then leave the minute that the others walked out of the door, dragging them and Ianto with her.

And Ianto knew that it was wrong, but he didn't really regret Lisa having to leave him too much anymore. He had concluded last night that it was because of his current not really real relationship with Jack. Ianto had already told himself that if Jack asked him out that the answer would be yes, however he knew that it could never really happen.

Not with his Dad around to watch his every move. He had only just been able to cover up his relationship with Lisa, which - even if his Dad had found out about – he wouldn't have minded too much, but the man was extremely homophobic.

And Ianto worried that with Jack's personality, that he wouldn't be able to hide that relationship. If it ever happened that was.

* * *

Jack lay awake that night looking at the card that he had done for Ianto. He was unsure as to whether or not to give it to Ianto. He decided to give it to him in the end assuming that it couldn't really do much harm.

He remembered about that sleepover that he had offered Ianto and wondered how long that would be put off for now as Ianto's Dad would probably want him home in the evening to make sure that his son was copping alright.

Even though Ianto seemed to give him the impression that his Dad didn't actually care too much.

* * *

Toshiko yawned as she pulled the covers over her cold body. She had stayed up far too late working on a project on her computer and was now beginning to regret that decision realising that she would only be able to have about six hours sleep. Two hours less than what was recommended for someone of her age.

She looked at the little swan that she had made out of paper that was sat on her desk. It was a little present for Ianto that had _'get well soon' _written on the bottom in Japanese.

In the end it only took Tosh the best side of ten minutes to fall asleep.

* * *

Owen looked at his mess of a room and decided for once that he actually didn't care about his Mother shouting at him. She didn't give up even when it was late. Sometimes she would call out things to her son at times like half two in the morning – Owen was deciding it best to ignore her lately.

He had been busy all night on Ianto's card. To Owen it was a mystery as to why he was even bothering to spend the time on it. But maybe it was because of some of the things that Ianto had done for him without even having to be asked or told or even hinted at. He just knew and did it for you.

Like his homework. He had almost forgotten about his maths homework until the lesson before it was due in. At the end of break, Ianto had brought him a sheet of paper covered in numbers. Owen didn't even question it, but just took the sheet and handed it in, knowing full well that it could all be wrong.

However it was Ianto and none of it was wrong as always.

His Russian homework now lay on the floor beside his sketch book; which he did actually need for tomorrow now that he thought about it, but he couldn't be bothered to get back up and pack it.

Sitting on the edge of his bed was something that he did many a night when he couldn't sleep, but he had found himself doing it more so lately. He thought about Tosh a lot of the time and then he thought about school, his relationship with his mother and occasionally he thought about Diane.

Tonight he was thinking about Toshiko and whether Ianto would even like the card he had made, although as he jumped into bed he decided it was tough if he didn't.

* * *

Gwen and Rhys had gotten Ianto a card between the pair of them on their way home tonight and now Gwen found herself talking to Rhys over Windows Live Messenger. When Rhys signed off she continued to play bejewelled on her own. She eventually shut down her laptop and packed her bag for tomorrow.

Before she climbed into bed she headed down to the kitchen and grabbed herself a drink before looking at the card that she had left on the table. She was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

* * *

Toshiko wasn't really sure what she had expected to see when she met Ianto, but he actually looked pretty well. He was smiling even though Tosh knew that she wouldn't exactly be happy to be in his situation, however she assumed that Ianto was looking on the _'it could be worse' _side of things.

"Morning Ianto. How are you feeling?"

"Alright thanks, obviously I could be better," Toshiko knew what he meant, "So what did I miss?" Ianto changed the subject and Tosh was more than happy to change topics as well.

Gwen concluded that it was slightly strange to have Ianto back after not seeing him for so long. She walked along holding Rhys's hand as they walked. Jack hadn't told them about Ianto's injuries, so she wasn't too sure what to expect, but concluded that Ianto seemed to be in good mental health even if he wasn't in the best physical health at the minute.

Not that she was aware of how Ianto's mental health actually was these days.

Jack smiled when he saw Ianto and he could see the younger smile back, even from the distance of pavement that was between them. The American found himself amazed that Ianto could still walk quickly even though he didn't have the use of one ankle.

"Hey," Jack said happily as he embrace Ianto – all be it slightly awkwardly due to Ianto's injuries – but he still managed it, "How are you doing then?"

"Alright actually." Ianto replied smiling up and the slightly taller American friend of his.

"How was your Aunt?" Ianto became suddenly silent and Jack was sure that he wasn't the only one in their group who had picked up on that sudden change in vibe at his question.

"She… she was good." They all stood in silence for a moment and Jack couldn't help, but blame himself for being so stupid and not remembering Ianto's reaction to that when he visited him on Monday in the hospital.

"Well shall we keep going then?" Rhys asked the whole group, breaking the silence, "Don't won't to be late do we." He started walking and Gwen soon followed, Owen and Tosh making their way in the same direction. Jack and Ianto followed at the back.

Jack could see Ianto a lot clearer now than when he had been in a hospital bed. He had a few visible scratches on his next that Jack could see above his collar and guessed that there were probably a few more below it. His left wrist – which was fractured - was in a splint and Jack guessed that they had most likely bandaged his broken ribs and stomach.

Ianto was on crutches, because of his now broken ankle, which was in a red fibreglass cast. Now that the others were ahead of them he looked back over to Ianto.

"So do you want to talk to me about the crash and your Aunt?" He asked, trying not to make it seem like he was pushing Ianto into telling him, but at the same time he wanted the younger to talk to him.

"I'll tell you at lunch?" Ianto asked; Jack nodded his head, "In the library?"

"If that suits you Ianto, then it does for me to."

The pair walked along happily to the school gates and headed to their form room. Their teacher registered them all before getting on with some paper work and the group gave Ianto his cards.

Gwen and Rhys went first, handing Ianto a card in a dark purple envelope. The front of the card had get well soon written on it in Welsh. On the inside Gwen and Rhys had written a short message, once again I'm Welsh and Ianto knew that it was Gwen's writing as apart from him that spoke Welsh.

Owen went next handing Ianto a sheet of A four paper that had a drawing of them all on the front. On the other side Owen had written get well soon.

Tosh followed up Owen handing Ianto her origami swan. Ianto looked at it with a smile before Tosh pointed to the bottom of it. Ianto flipped the swan over and read Tosh's message with a smile before placing the swan down carefully.

Jack went last handing Ianto a card and a bag of white grapes. At the end of registration they all got up and left the room. Ianto headed to Spanish, still not quite managing the stairs brilliantly, but in the end he was successful. After Spanish Ianto had drama with Gwen and he felt slightly sad that he wasn't allowed to join in, because of the crutches factor.

* * *

Jack was sat in German, thinking about how Ianto was coping. He looked across Tosh and Owen. Tosh was busy helping Owen with his work and he was giving her a smile. The pair seemed to have repaired their relationship pretty quickly.

He smiled at them before returning to his thoughts on his own relationship with Ianto. The whole group met up at break and most of that break consisted to Jack listening to Ianto go on about his drama lesson – which Jack had asked about.

"And I wasn't allowed to do anything, which made it completely boring."

"You know what next week you should ask if you can join me since I have a free hour and then that way you wouldn't be as bored as you were today."

"I'd like that." Ianto replied as he picked up his English book as well as Jack and began to write out what he had missed from Mr Redford's lessons.

"Hey you watch that wrist." Jack told him as he grabbed his book back before holding it open on the page for Ianto to copy.

"I was writing with my right Jack, I'm right handed, it's my left that's fractured."

"I know I'm just saying." Jack replied before both of them smiled at each other.

The whole of their English lesson was spent with them talking to each other, planning some story writing for a task that they would do next lesson. The pair of them were both upset when they had to go to their next lesson.

Ianto walked to his music lesson well aware that he wasn't going to be able to play the guitar or the piano – well maybe some piano if he only played with his right hand – but that wouldn't be easy for him as he would be forcing himself not to use the other hand as well.

Miss Davies reminded Ianto of Rhiannon, not only in name, but in personality as well. Ianto stayed sat where he was when everyone else moved to start some actual musical work. Miss Davies walked over and sat down next to him.

"I'm not going to ask, if you're alright Ianto, because that would be a bit stupid," Ianto nodded in reply, "So you could always help me instead of sitting here and being bored for an hour."

Ianto looked up at her, "How could I help you?"

"Well I'm not very good with computers Ianto, but I hear that you are." Ianto nodded once again, "We have this new music software and I can't figure it out, but maybe you can. So what do say, want to give it a try?"

"Um yeah okay." Ianto stood up and followed her over to her desk, his crutches making a small noise each time he moved them. At the end of the lesson Miss Davies knew how to do quite a lot more with the software. During the time that Ianto had been helping her, she had told him more about the wedding, which was going to be in January.

Afterwards he headed as he had promised Jack to the library. Jack wasn't there when he arrived, but appeared a few moments later and helped Ianto up the next sets of stairs. They sat down at the back of the library.

Jack helped Ianto to sit down onto the floor minding his ankle, although the red wasn't easy to miss. They sat in silence for a moment before Ianto started talking before Jack had even said anything at all.

"My Aunt doesn't actually exist you see. My Dad made that up, so that they would take me home." Jack didn't move to interrupt his younger friend during this tale, "She lives over in America since she fell out with my Dad when my Mum died."

"Ianto, I know that it's a forbidden topic usually, but I don't know much about it, so is there any chance you could tell me…" Jack stopped himself as he looked to see how Ianto's facial features were looking before continuing, "What happened to your sister, Rhiannon?"

Ianto looked down to the floor. He couldn't really tell Jack that his Dad had deliberately gotten her killed and he didn't have any proof of that apart from what he saw and knowing his Dad he would find a way to clear Ianto's claim if they ever went to a court over murder.

"She was involved in a car accident, straight after her wedding. She'd just married Johnny."

"Oh. Ianto I'm sorry."

"It's alright. It wasn't your fault," Ianto them mumbled, "More like mine." He didn't think that Jack would have heard him, but the older did.

"How was it your fault?"

"Because I didn't say anything." Silence followed them afterwards and neither knew what to say to the other that would be a safe bet, so nothing was said. After a while Jack looked over at Ianto and decided on something to say.

"Ianto that sleepover that we were talking about do you want to have it on Friday? I mean if your Dad's alright with it of course and if you feel up to it with having crutches and loads of injuries and stuff."

Ianto turned his head to face Jack, slowly to avoid irritating his neck, "Yeah. Friday sounds good to me."

"And then I'll take you to the museum on Saturday," Jack then added, "If you want to go that is. I was just thinking that since you missed the trip and you might have liked some of it and-"

"Yeah, Jack that sounds fine. Better than fine even."

Jack and Ianto both had different last lessons and headed off to them for the final hour of school. Afterwards they met each other by the school gates and began to walk home. Jack left Ianto part way.

"Well I will see you tomorrow."

"Yeah I'll see you then." Ianto replied before walking off in the direction of his Dad's house. He let himself in and found the man asleep on the sofa, so he quietly – well as quietly as you could with crutches - headed up stairs to his bedroom.

He sat down on his bed placing the crutches onto the floor. He felt considerably more tired than he usually would and was following through the instructions that he had been given to rest every so often, because of his wrist.

He smiled at the thought of Friday and happily started thinking that the weekend was looking up especially since it would out him out of the house for about two days, maybe slightly less. Suddenly the weekend was looking up.

* * *

Alright next update may be Monday since it's half term, if not it will be Tuesday. I hope to have another new story up soon, but this one still has quite a few chapters left to go. Anyway thank you for reading, thank you for reviewing, please review, thank you for favouiting and alerting as well.


	8. Chapter 8

Sorry it's a little later than I promised, but here's chapter eight.

* * *

Ianto woke up early on Thursday morning after struggling to get to sleep. His Dad had woken up at about seven and left the house. When he returned later (at what Ianto timed to be about ten o clock) and put the TV on, very loudly.

His Dad was officially off work for a day, but was allowed to go back to his job tomorrow if he wanted to, so Ianto assumed that the man would pick up a hire car today until theirs was fixed or not fixed.

After lying in bed for ages, Ianto pulled himself up into a sitting position and reached down to grab his crutches before getting up and ready for school.

Afterwards he made his way down the stairs, still finding it hard to have to get his crutches down as well without falling over his own head. Walking across the landing of the hall was easier for him and he was quick to make it to the kitchen once he was off the stairs.

Once he was in the kitchen he made himself some coffee, although even that was made slightly harder with him only having one good wrist. Ianto sat in the living room for almost an hour before Tosh turned up.

Ianto exited the house to meet her with a smile. His Dad had been asleep when he left as well, so Ianto had not yet seen how angry his Dad actually was with him. Not that he particularly cared too much.

"So are you feeling any better this morning Ianto?" Toshiko asked as he powered his way down the house's drive, "You seem to be moving quicker with those crutches anyway."

"Yeah it gets easier, especially on flat ground." Ianto replied returning Tosh's bright morning smile. They began their short journey to meet Gwen and Rhys, talking the whole way.

"What are you going to do this weekend Ianto?" Tosh asked, "I can't imagine that there's all that much you can do."

"I'm going to spend it with Jack," Ianto was sure that Toshiko noticed the way his face lit up, "Sleepover at his and then he's taking me to the museum."

"That will be nice for you." She replied before they both looked ahead to see Gwen and Rhys waiting for them, "And don't worry I won't tell anyone in case you don't want anyone to you know, know."

"Thanks." Ianto said before they reached Gwen and Rhys who said good morning to them. The walk to meet Jack and Owen was filled with conversation mainly put in by Rhys until they reached the two remaining members of their little group.

Gwen, Rhys and Owen walked ahead and Jack hung back with Tosh and Ianto, interested in hearing what Tosh had to say. The others dropped back slightly to listen as well.

"There's a new student coming today called Adam, he's not staying very long, but apparently he's going to be in a lot of my classes, so they've asked me to show him around."

"Interesting, I just love it when new people come to the school and you end up showing them round, meaning that they would have to hang around with our group." Owen replied, "Brilliant, just brilliant."

"Owen," Gwen lightly elbowed him and Jack gave him a glare, Tosh just looked down at the ground as they continued walking. The group headed inside the school building apart from Jack and Ianto, the latter of who had been pulled away by Jack to one side.

"Are you still alright to come on Friday? Was your Dad okay with it?" Ianto hadn't asked and wasn't planning on it as if he did ask, the answer would definitely be a no.

"Yeah, yeah he was fine with it." Ianto lied, the words easily rolling off of his tongue. Jack smiled in reply before indicating towards the school building as the bell rang.

"Come on, we should get inside." Ianto smiled as he followed Jack inside. When he walked into their form room, he was surprised to see Owen actually reading a book, "Whoa there's a change you're reading a book Owen." Jack commented.

"Yeah, yeah I know, it's a miracle." Once he was sat down Ianto could see that the book was on medical studies by a doctor Copley. Toshiko seemed to be writing onto a sheet of paper and Gwen and Rhys were busy planning details for each other's birthdays as Rhys was coming up in a few weeks. The twenty first of November and they were already on the eleventh of that month.

"So Owen why are you reading that big book?" Jack asked as he sat down next to Ianto.

"Well I want to be a doctor and doctors always know their stuff." Ianto had to nod, because Owen was right, doctors did always know there stuff. After all he had been at first-hand experience of that only a few days ago.

Ianto travelled alone to his Spanish lesson and spent the whole lesson writing up notes to refer to on the topic of describing people. One thing that did annoy Ianto was that he had to be in a class with people who were only just starting to do Spanish when he had been doing it since year seven.

English was more fun than his Spanish class was since he wasn't alone for a whole hour. He was surprised when he heard his name being called out as he made his way to their English room; which was in a different building. When he turned around he saw that it was Gwen running towards him.

"Ianto talk to me quickly, John is getting on my nerves." She told him as she met his pace to walk beside him. Ianto spared a look backwards over his shoulder to see John making his way towards them. Ianto didn't know John's timetable, apart from when it clashed with his own.

Because he was looking backwards he almost tripped the next step that he took. Gwen noticed and managed to help stop him from going straight forward.

"Are you alright Ianto?"

"Yeah I was looking behind me," Gwen seemed to nod in understanding before they continued walking, "So you said John was getting on your nerves?" Ianto asked, trying to keep to Gwen's request of talking to her to make her seem engaged in something other than just walking.

"I've just spent a whole hour in French with him breathing down my back and trying to kiss me. He doesn't seem to understand that I don't find his joke very funny." They met up with Rhys a moment later and John continued to walk straight passed them.

Ianto walked into the room and sat down next to Jack – who was there before him for once – as Gwen and Rhys did the same. Mr Redford watched them all carefully as he started his lesson. Ianto looked over to see that Owen wasn't sat with Tosh, but in front of him and Jack.

Toshiko was sat next to a boy about their age with red hair. On top of the usual school uniform he wore a leather jacket and Ianto really hoped that he wasn't going to irritate Owen. Jack chose that point to lean over to Ianto and whisper to him.

"What do you want for tea on Friday?"

Ianto turned to face Jack, "I don't really mind," He whispered back before adding, "But nothing with meat in it, I'm a vegetarian."

"Oh I didn't know that. Well we could get pizza or Chinese. Whatever you like, I'm not overly bothered." The rest of the lesson went in the same direction with Jack and Ianto discussing food plans for Friday, with neither being able to make a decision on what to have.

At break the group sat outside enjoying the bright sunshine. Ianto was glad that he didn't have to stay stood up all day as not only would that hurt his wrist, but also the leg that he would still be stood up on.

Toshiko was still sat with Adam and Owen was glaring at the pair with annoyance written all over his face.

"Relax Owen the guys only staying till the end of tomorrow." Jack told the groups want to be doctor.

"Yeah well that's a day to long."

* * *

Owen sat through his boring maths lesson with Jack by his side. This new Adam kid was really beginning to annoy him and they had only exchanged one word between them.

Jack was busy thinking of things that he and Ianto could do tomorrow evening. He had been paying attention, but Owen's anger had started to annoy him so much that he couldn't pay attention to what their teacher was saying.

He wondered if Ianto liked James Bond.

Jack made sure that he was out of maths early enough to catch Ianto before the younger went to his next lesson. The minute he saw Ianto he moved over towards him and started walking with Ianto out of the building.

"Do you like James Bond?"

"Yes Jack I do."

"Good, because I thought that we could watch some of the films tomorrow evening."

"That sounds good." With that the pair spilt up. Ianto headed to Geography and Jack to RE.

* * *

At lunch time, the group met up once again. Rhys, Dav and Banana started playing football and Gwen joined in a moment later. Ianto wouldn't have minded joining in with a game of football today, however he couldn't even if he had wanted to do so.

Tosh was still talking to Adam, seemingly engrossed in his presence alone which was still irritating Owen, who was now sat with him and Jack instead.

Part way through lunch Jack was told that he was needed to take a phone call in reception, so he left Owen with Ianto while to headed off to take the call. Owen handed Ianto a different book to the one that he had been reading earlier and Ianto looked at him in slight confusion.

"Test me on it."

"Why?" Ianto question and Owen sighed.

"Because I need to know it all that's why." Ianto rolled his eyes, but Owen didn't notice. Since Ianto had returned to school he had seen a different side to Owen.

The usually care free, life obsessed, against work and sometimes annoying Owen, seemed to have been replaced by someone else. This Owen seemed determined to do well at something. So Ianto did as he was asked and opened the book and began to read some of the questions.

* * *

Jack placed the phone back down and left the reception area. The phone call had been from Ianto's doctor when he had been in hospital, John Smith, asking him how Ianto was doing. Jack had given the doctor the schools number in case they needed to contact Ianto about his Dad while he was at school.

He had been confused at first as he knew that Ianto had mentioned his Dad being back at home, but Doctor Smith cleared things up for him. The doctor explained that he was just checking to see if Ianto was managing alright as having crutches with a fractured wrist wasn't one of the easiest things as well as the two broken ribs that would impact on Ianto's breathing.

Jack had felt compelled to ask about Ianto sleeping over his house tomorrow night, to which John Smith had told him that as long as his Dad was alright with it and Ianto continued to be careful that it should be fine.

When he returned outside he found Ianto with a book open on his lap, while talking to Owen at the same time. As soon as he had sat back down he read the book title and then listened to what Owen was talking about it became obvious as to what they were doing.

"Compressed stomach and abdominal tissue can impact on six major nerve veins that connect to your spleen and if compressed too much it can lead to dysphagia or odynophagia. These are commonly accompanied by things like weight loss as a symptom – you should watch your weight Ianto by the way." Owen told him as he turned to him before returning to what he had been saying.

"If nothing is done about those then they can lead to achalasia, although only five per cent of young people usually get that per year. If dysphagia and odynophagia don't lead to achalasia then they can lead to gord which is an acid reflux and-"

"Sorry to interrupt your most probably very important medical speech Owen, but why are you giving Ianto one anyway?"

"Because he's testing me on my knowledge and well Ianto had compressed stomach and abdominal tissue at the minute, so it seemed like a good subject to be answering things on."

* * *

The bell went at the end of lunch and the group spilt to go to their next lessons. Ianto was stuck in History that afternoon on his own. It bored him always having so many lessons without his friends.

Their class were currently studying the Second World War and the Holocaust. Not a topic that was one of Ianto's particular favourites to study, but it had to be done for GCSE history. At the end of the lesson Ianto was more than glad to leave the room. Watching that documentary on Hitler's concentration camps had made him feel sick.

He knew that Jack had geography and started head to the other side of the building to meet him. A he was on his way over there he felt a hand push against his chest, pushing him against one of the walls.

Ianto didn't need to look to see who it was. John Hart stood in front of him, with his hand still pressing down on Ianto's chest, painfully compressing his broken ribs. John leaned closer towards him before speaking.

"So come on what trick are you pulling this time?" Ianto just looked at John in confusion, "Trying to get Jack to feel for you having so many injuries?"

"No I was in a car crash on Monday." Ianto replied with the truth unsure as to what had caused this reaction from John, although it wasn't hard for him to guess that it probably involved his ever growing relationship with Jack.

"Of course a car crash, couldn't you think of anything more original?"

"I'm telling the truth." Ianto pushed the fact that he wasn't lying to John, just leaving out a few details that he didn't need to know about.

"I know you are Eye candy, but I just had to do that. I like making a point you see." From what Jack had told him, Ianto was already well aware that John liked making a point about things that didn't really need a point to be made about them. John spoke again and Ianto couldn't think of anything to say to interrupt him with as well as adding to the fact that he was now struggling to breather thanks to John's hand being in the way.

"Now look I want you to back away from Jack and I don't want to see the two of you anywhere near each other. I'll give you to Monday as I think that's fair and I'm a fair person," Ianto knew that that past statement was the opposite of true, "And then if you are still spending too much time together then I will have something to say about it."

John removed his hand and Ianto finally found it easier to breathe again. The slightly older boy started to walk away, before stopping and turning his head back round to look at Ianto again.

"By the way tell Jack I said hello." Ianto leant against the wall for a minute before he continued making his way round to Jack's last lessons location.

* * *

Jack leant against the wall as he waited for Ianto. The younger was usually almost on time. The only times when he wasn't was when teachers held him back. But Jack knew that Ianto's history teacher was fussy about keeping time.

That meant starting and finishing at the time that they were supposed to. Where as Jack's geography teacher had a thing for finishing a minute later than they were meant to for every student that come in late and there would always be two or three that constantly did, even though it made them later.

When he finally saw Ianto come into view he smiled and began to walk over towards him. His smile fell when he got close as Ianto looked like he was having some trouble breathing.

"Ianto are you alright?"

"Yeah," Ianto replied before realising that Jack was referring to his different breathing pattern, "Stairs were a pain, took longer to get down them with crutches more annoying can we get going now?" Ianto asked before sucking in a deep breath at the end that was followed in quick succession by a round of coughing.

"Yeah sure, but take it easy alright I don't like the way that your sounding at the minute."

"Don't worry I'm fine." Jack wasn't convinced, however he started walking with Ianto anyway. The pair chatted about nothing in particular until Ianto changed the subject.

"Who rang you at lunch?"

"Oh do you remember your doctor from the other day, John Smith?" Ianto nodded, "He wanted to ask how you were coping. I don't know why he asked to speak to me and not you, but I suppose it was easier to drag me away from where ever I was than it was you."

The pair said goodbye at the corner and walked off in their different directions, both smiling in anticipation for tomorrow night's sleep over.

* * *

The first thing Ianto noticed when he walked up the drive way was the hire vehicle that – as he had predicted – had been dropped off for his Dad to use until their car was sorted out. Using his set of door keys he let himself in and headed straight upstairs, not caring if his Dad wanted him to sort out tea, because he couldn't be bothered.

He was feeling a lot better now that he had stopped walking and was sitting on his bed, crutches on the floor and shoes – or rather shoe – off of his left foot. Ianto was aware of his Dad's presence downstairs and could hear most of the noise he was making which consisted off a lot of swearing.

Ianto couldn't find anything to do. He had already done a lot of his homework, so he didn't really have too much that he could do. If he could be bothered to travel down the stairs again he would put the TV on, however he couldn't find the energy to be bothered with it.

His Dad's shouting started getting closer and he could hear footsteps coming up the stairs. He was aware of his Dad entering the room, but not really what happened next apart from the fact that something hit him in the stomach.

"Is there something that you want to tell me?" Ianto didn't reply as his hand flew to cover his stomach, "No? Well you're not going anywhere after school tomorrow I want you back here on time, got it?"

Ianto nodded, but wasn't sure quite how is Dad was aware that he was going somewhere after school tomorrow since he hadn't said anything about it, but then again he guessed the bag that he had packed was a slight give a way.

The man left the room and Ianto lied down on his bed, his hands still around his hurting stomach. However despite what his Dad had said, Ianto wasn't planning on following those orders and deciding that he would still go to Jack's.

After all Jack was saving him from spending two more days in this horrible flat.

* * *

That night Ianto didn't sleep very well. He put it down to his stomach, but he also had a lot of trouble with coughing every time that he woke up. In the end – when Ianto was pretty sure that he couldn't do anything to stay asleep – he got up and headed downstairs with the bags that he had to take with him today.

Ianto left the house at about five minutes before he really needed to and made his way down towards Tosh's house. She met him part why and gave him a questioning look as to why he was meeting her at her house.

"I couldn't sleep."

"Yeah, but you shouldn't be walking extra distances with that ankle and your wrist and all the other injuries that you have."

"I don't mind." The pair of them continued walking and Tosh told Ianto a lot more about Adam, not that Ianto really minded, although he knew that Owen would be happy that it was Adam's last day here.

When they met up with Jack and Owen, Ianto smiled and walked next to Jack. Jack was quite disapproving of the fact that Ianto was carrying to bags.

"Ianto give me that bag."

"I'm alright with it Jack."

"No Ianto give it to me." Jack held out his hand to take the bag and Ianto reluctantly stopped walking, slipped the bag off of his shoulder before handing it to Jack, who then slung it over his own shoulder.

"Why didn't you just pick it up after school?"

"It's easier just to go straight to yours, so I brought it with me." Jack nodded as in seeing Ianto's logic. During registration Jack and Ianto found themselves questioning Owen on more of his medical knowledge while he attempted to ignore Adam, who he said was flirting with Tosh.

When the bell rang the group spilt up. Tosh left with Adam to go to RE, Owen, Jack, Gwen and Rhys headed to their technology lessons and Ianto walked part way with them before staying on the netball courts for his free lesson.

Jack had left carrying his other bag still and sat alone Ianto felt pretty bored. His timetable also annoyed him as it put his free lesson at the same time as John's and then gave him an art lesson directly afterwards.

Ianto saw John smirking at him from the other side of the netball courts and did his best to try and ignore him as well as the pain in his stomach.

* * *

Okay thanks for reading and reviewing my next update will be Friday.


	9. Chapter 9

Okay I meant to upload this last night, but fanfiction wouldn't let me sign in, so I thought I try again today. Thank you for the reviews and for reading here's the next chapter.

* * *

Ianto hadn't minded when it started to rain, but kept sat where he was. He pulled his fold up coat out of his bag and chucked it over the fiberglass cast that encased his right ankle. John was still watching him, but about five minutes before the bell rang he disappeared from Ianto's line of sight.

The young Welsh was worried that John would find out about the sleepover that he had planned with Jack, because he knew that the older wouldn't be very happy if he did. Nor would his Dad for that matter. Ianto was just extremely glad that his Dad didn't seem to be aware of the sleepover.

When the bell did go, Ianto picked up his crutches and got back onto his feet – or technically foot – and made his way to his art classroom, dreading the fact that John would be there. Surprisingly when he walked in there was no sign of the other and Ianto sighed with relief, even though he knew that it probably wouldn't last.

John turned up ten minutes late, but Ianto didn't really care about that fact. That lesson they continued to do work on stencilling in the style of Andy Warhol – One of which Ianto missed, because he was in hospital - and then the next two lessons after this one would be in the style of Roy Lichtenstein.

Ianto kept his head down and focussed on his work, so that he could avoid looking at John, who he knew was staring at him from the other end of the classroom rather than working like he was. Being in the same room as John made Ianto feel paranoid, so not only did he spend the whole lesson looking down, but with his crutches still held right beside him – just in case he needed to grab them quickly

At the end of the lesson Ianto practically jumped up out of his seat, regretting it almost immediately as it pulled on some of the muscles in his stomach and caused him to stop still for a moment. No one paid any real mind to it, as they most likely passed it off as his ankle or wrist as no one other than his friends were aware of the injuries that couldn't be seen.

Ianto also knew that had he not have kept his crutches close to him all lesson that he would have fallen over when he stood up a moment ago as he would of forgotten about them.

Because it was still raining when he met up with Jack and the others, they headed to the form room for break. Owen sat on the opposite side of the room to Adam, who was still claiming Toshiko's attention. Gwen and Rhys also sat with Tosh and Adam.

Jack and Ianto moved to sit with Owen, who thanked them both for being willing enough to allow him there company for the twenty five minute long break that they were given. For once Owen was not talking about his medical knowledge claiming that he needed a break, but would like it if they could quiz him again at lunch, to which Jack and Ianto both happily agreed to do.

As break neared its end Ianto noticed that the pain in his stomach had subsided so much that he couldn't really feel it anymore and for that he was glad. At the end of break Owen managed to surprise them all yet again.

"Right well I'm going to the library."

"Wow, Owen you really want to be a doctor don't you?"

"Yes Jack I do." Owen replied, "Now if you will all excuse me I believe you have lessons to go to and I have a library full of books calling out to me." With that Owen walked off in the direction of the school library.

"Well I should probably go with him." Rhys told them before turning to Gwen, "I'll meet you at lunch." He gave her a kiss before running after Owen.

Tosh and Adam were next to leave to go to IT, Gwen went to RE and Jack was left with Ianto. Jack took in a deep breath before turning to Ianto.

"May I have the honour of walking you to your music lesson?"

"You'll be late if you do, so don't worry I'll be fine it's not like its dark and I'm walking through the back lanes of town or something."

"Yes that's all true, but it's raining and I don't want you falling and breaking a leg or adding another injury to your numerous collection."

Ianto sighed before he spoke again, "Fine if you want to be late then be my guest."

"Good. Let's go." Jack replied before walking out of the form room with a smile, allowing Ianto to follow him out. Once the pair were outside they made the walk to the other building as quickly as they could without actually rushing. The older walked Ianto right up to the door of the classroom.

"Well enjoy your music lesson Ianto."

"I don't really do much at the minute." Silence fell over them before Jack thought of something to say although it wasn't a brilliant piece of information and he was sure that Ianto already knew it.

"I should be going, I'm already three minutes late."

"Oh you might break Owen's record at this rate." The pair smiled and laughed slightly before Jack pushed the door open for Ianto to walk into the room. Ianto gave him a thank you before he left for History.

Ianto once again spent the lesson helping Rhiannon – although he should be calling her Miss Davies, even though she was soon to be Mrs Rogers now – with the new music software. At the end of the lesson he found Jack waiting outside the classroom for him with a small smile.

* * *

Jack sat in History not even bothering to take down any notes as he knew that Ianto would be kind enough to lend him his. He was too busy thinking about what Ianto had told him the other day in the library about the Aunt that his Dad had apparently sent him home with was a fake and that his actual Aunt hated his Dad and lived in America now.

As the lesson neared its end Jack made an excuse that he had to see the schools music teacher now, so after some debate over that, his history teacher finally let him leave five minutes early. As he was walking along the corridors, he lifted his head to see John Hart - of all the people that he could meet in a corridor - walking towards him.

"I thought you should be in lessons?" John asked.

"So should you." Jack replied, not liking the smile that was over John's face. It was a smile that he had last seen when he was dating John or when the other had achieved something that he felt proud of even if it wasn't considered by Jack something to be proud of or even something good. Usually he wore that smile when he had done something – which in Jack's opinion – was bad.

"Fair enough, your right we both should be. I won't say anything if you won't."

"Can't guarantee it." Jack replied before gritting his teeth. He couldn't stand John and wanted nothing more than to quickly get away from his old ex-boyfriend.

"Now if you'll excuse me I have to go and meet someone." Jack told John, deciding not to mention exactly who he was meeting as he wasn't sure how John would react to thinking that he was trying to get close enough to Ianto to say that he was in a relationship with him.

He only got part way down the corridor before John called out to him, "Did you get my message by the way?" Jack abruptly stopped walking and turned his head around to face John once again.

"What message?" He saw the look of anger and annoyance spread across John's face before the other replied to his question.

"Just a text message that I sent you yesterday." Jack frowned with confusion, since when did John do texting? If he wanted something he always called, left a message on an answering machine, used video messaging or delivered it directly.

Jack didn't voice his thoughts, but just turned and walked away to go and meet Ianto.

* * *

Ianto made his way over to Jack who then proceeded to walk him back to the main building for all of their languages lessons that they had before lunch. The pair met up with Owen and Rhys part way, but Rhys soon met up with Gwen and the two walked on ahead, leaving just Jack, Ianto and Owen to talk between themselves as they made it to their next lesson.

"I hate Russian, it's so damn confusing." Owen complained.

"Well you chose it Owen." Ianto reminded him before Jack spoke.

"You should have done French with Ianto then you would have defiantly passed with an A or an A star and Ianto would have some company then that way."

Owen seemed to process this in his mind for a moment before asking, "Do you think they would let me switch since we've only been back at school for just over two months?" Jack and Ianto couldn't help but laugh a little before turning back to being sensible.

"Why don't you ask the staff at reception if it's possible? Ianto and I will come with you if you want us to as well." Jack suggested. Owen nodded his head in reply.

"I will do that actually. Are you two coming to the library at lunch?" Jack looked to Ianto who gave alight nod of his head to show that he was saying yes in reply to the question that had been asked instead of using words. Jack turned back to Owen.

"Yeah we will be."

"Good, Rhys doesn't shut up, so it was so hard to actually focus on reading. Oh and Ianto that old guy, the librarian – mister whatever he's called was asking after you to me."

"You mean John Davies, right."

"Yeah, that guy." Ianto rolled his eyes, Owen noticed it, but said nothing. Gwen and Rhys parted ways to go to their different language classes. Owen asked Gwen if he could sit with her today as Tosh was sitting with Adam and he didn't really want to get in the way.

* * *

Jack was happy to have a class with Ianto and headed into their French room with Rhys in tow behind them. Ianto spent the first part of the lesson trying to translate the title and objectives for Jack and Rhys.

It was almost quarter to two when the pain in Ianto's stomach returned. Luckily he had been writing and looking down, so Jack didn't notice the way his face screwed up in pain for a minute as the sharp stabbing feeling returned.

Ianto was managing to hide his pain very well especially while Miss Pen was lecturing them all on grammar to change the verb endings of French words. She was interrupted by a nod at the door and Ianto brought his head up just a tad too quickly. Ianto found himself zoning out after that and when he started to hear Jack and Rhys's voices he wondered if they were talking to him as everything was mixing together into one massive blur.

He felt a warm hand on his shoulder in the end and his name being called numerous times before he was brought back to reality. He should have been more exact and said Jack's voice and Jack's hand.

"Ianto, Ianto, its lunch time now." He slowly got up and saw that everyone else had already left, even their teacher meaning that he must have zoned out for at least half an hour. "Are you alright? You were completely out of it."

Ianto shook his head, "Yeah I'm fine I just zoned out like you said."

"If you sure." Ianto nodded, "Okay let's go and meet Owen."

Owen walked out of his Russian class and it didn't even take Jack and Ianto a second to notice just how angry and annoyed he was from the way he was moving and looking.

"Right let's go to the library then." They left the building and started walking towards the library before Owen explained his anger, "That damn Adam won't leave Tosh alone for a single f***ing second of his life."

"So I take it you can't wait for him to leave then?" Jack asked, even though he didn't really need to ask it.

"What do you think?" Owen replied, giving Jack a glare that – if looks could kill – would have easily done so within a few seconds. Once in the library they headed upstairs and Owen once again handed Ianto and Jack his medical text book.

"Okay let's continue from where we left off yesterday."

"And where was that?" Jack asked not quite remembering as he had joined the event near the end, but Ianto remembered and quickly asked Owen more details about compressed stomach and abdominal tissue.

"I'm sorry, but why are we doing this topic?" Jack asked.

"Because it relates to Ianto's current injury, so I thought it would be worth while covering it." Jack couldn't really argue with that piece of amazing logic from Owen and looked on the good side that it would at least give him some idea of things to look out for to make sure that Ianto wasn't getting worse.

"Anyway as I was saying yesterday, wheezing isn't a good sign as that indicates that the compression of the tissue is causing problems when your breathing that appears more common in people who have injuries to their ribs or chest area as well, so there are quite a few things that we should watch out for with Ianto."

"Go on then Owen you better finish your list of doom for me." Ianto told him before he continued.

"Lying down is good for compressed stomach tissue as you're allowing your stomach to be flat." Jack looked to Ianto as soon as Owen had said that and carefully grabbed Ianto's shoulders and pulled him down, resting his head and neck against himself, so that Ianto was effectively lying down. Owen hadn't noticed Jack move and had kept talking.

"If the weight loss doesn't stop that it can lead to anorexia which then puts people at more risk of suffering from loss of sleep, colds and flus as well as more medical things like anaemia - which in its self carries a bunch of symptoms and side effects - then there's also things like Haematemesis, Abdominal pain and Dysphagia-"

Owen paused looking at how Jack know had Ianto lying down against him.

"You moved." Ianto didn't seem overly sure on why Jack had done so and Owen could see from the look on Ianto's face that it had all been done to Jack.

Five minutes of lunch was all that the group had left when the three made their way back down to the ground floor of the library. John Davies had returned and was now sat at his desk. He looked up when he heard the group coming down the stairs.

"Ah Ianto I told your friend Owen here that I would like to see you. Can you spare a moment?"

"Yeah sure," Ianto replied as he made his way over to John's desk, his crutches carrying him across the length that was between him and the object. He turned to Jack and Owen, "Go on I'll meet you in Science."

"If you're sure Ianto we could wait for you otherwise." Jack replied.

"Yeah I am sure."

"Okay, but I am taking both of your bags with me." Jack told him as he picked up not only the bag that he had been carrying all day, but Ianto's other school bag as well before leaving with Owen.

"So Ianto I have been asked by a few of your teachers to give you some work to catch up on. I believe that one of the staff at reception will have it brought to you during your last lesson." Ianto nodded his head, "Get better soon Ianto. I can't imagine it's very nice to have to walk around with crutches nor to have numerous different limbs all bandaged up."

"Thanks, it isn't nice, but I'm managing."

"I should imagine so. You've got some good friends helping you by the looks of things to."

"Yeah I have." Ianto smiled as John opened the door for him, "Thanks." He told the older man before leaving the school library.

The temperature was still pretty cold outside even though it had already stopped raining about three hours ago. Ianto kept his head down for most of the walk as it stopped the cold air hitting his face. When Ianto looked up he began to wish that he hadn't. Because just in front of him, leaning against the wall was John Hart.

Ianto sighed as the older walked over to him. Although his mind – the only part of him that was thinking logically – was telling him to keep walking, he found himself stopping, mainly in fear of what might happen if he didn't.

John Hart was stronger than him on the best of days, but with all of his injuries he knew that he would easily be weaker than John and it wouldn't take the other boy long to overpower him.

"Why didn't Jack get my message?"

"You told me to keep away from him." Ianto replied trying to at least make his reason sound logical in response to what John had told him yesterday.

"Yes, but I've seen the two of you together, so don't think that I'm going to believe that."

"You said I had till Monday."

"Yes, but I meant for the message to be delivered yesterday." Silence fell between the two and Ianto had no idea on what to say next that would still keep him on or close to a hopefully safe line. However he couldn't think of anything, so he took the option that his mind had been so wishing for him to follow and walked away.

John made no move to follow him, but just smirked as he walked away.

* * *

When Ianto walked into science – ten minutes late - Jack asked where he had been and Ianto used the simple excuse of:

"Talking to John Davies you know about what he wanted to see me about."

"Yeah I know, but they dropped these folders off for you five minutes ago." Ianto sat down and started copying the notes that were on the board about heart attacks and tried to avoid Jack's question, although since they would be spending the evening together that may be harder than he thought it would be.

He was so glad when the lesson ended and everyone started to exit the room. Jack still had both of Ianto's bags held as they left, not allowing the younger to have either one back until they reached his house.

As they walked out of the school gates they were too busy talking, smiling and laughing to notice John watching their every step.

"So which James Bond movie was your favourite?" Jack asked as they walked down the road.

"I don't know, Gold finger maybe."

"Okay, what about flavour of pizza?"

"Cheese and Tomato definitely."

"Favourite drink?"

Ianto turned to face Jack as they turned down the corner where they usually met in the mornings, "What is this twenty questions?"

Jack shrugged, "Could be." They walked in silence for a moment before Jack spoke again, "So favourite cold drink?"

"Water."

"Hot drink?"

"Coffee."

"I knew it." Jack shouted barely even a second after Ianto had replied to his question, I told Owen that you preferred coffee and he still argued and said that you preferred tea and I knew all of the others as well. Now Owen owes me twenty quid."

"So that's what all the questions were for." Ianto replied, "You had a bet with Owen."

"I always win, so I don't know why he hasn't given up trying yet."

"No nor do I." Jack turned left and Ianto followed. He looked around (what looked to be a drive way or front garden) in a state almost close to shock. The place was massive add to that the house which looked like it had at least three floors and then the attic as well and Ianto could just imagine how big the back garden must be.

"You like it?" Jack asked seeing how Ianto had stopped to look around."

"Yeah it's a lot bigger than my house."

"My parents pay for it, but it doesn't really feel like a proper house you know, always being on your own – day and night."

"Yeah I know what you mean." Jack lead Ianto inside and placed Ianto two bags down on the floor alongside his. The older kicked his shoes off before hinting towards the living room. Ianto sat down and put his crutches on the floor before shaking his right hand, glad to not have to have it gripped around the bloody things anymore.

"I thought we could order pizza." Jack said as he entered the room with a numerous amount of take out menus which were – from what Ianto could see – all from different take aways. They were also all for pizza places and Ianto didn't even want to ask how long it had taken Jack to find all of them as they were thrown down beside him before Jack sat down next to him on the sofa, pulling his feet up, so that they were resting beside him.

Ianto found it easier to keep his feet nearer the ground. Jack pulled Ianto closer towards him before handing him one of the menus to look at.

"You can have anything you want. Don't worry about the cost, I'm not fussed about it," Jack told him before adding, "I order from loads of these all the time when I can't be bothered to cook which is like six times a week."

"You can cook?" Ianto asked, slightly shocked that Jack was claiming that he could cook something that was actually edible for human consumption.

"Yeah it just seems pointless to put in the effort for one person to eat it, so I never really bother that much anymore unless I have guests."

Ianto looked up at Jack, "Do I count as a guest?"

"Hmm," Jack paused to think, "Yeah I think you qualify. Are you staying tomorrow night as well?"

"Is that alright?"

"Yeah I'd like the company, will your Dad mind? Shouldn't you phone him and let him know? You can borrow mine phone if you'd like." Jack offered as he pushed Ianto forwards slightly and reached for his phone – which was sat on the floor – Ianto pushed him backwards to where he was previously.

"No he's gone away for the weekend he won't be back until Sunday evening, so it won't make a difference whether he knows or not." Ianto replied, lying so easily that it had become a sort of natural response to things that were regarding his Dad.

"Oh well that will be nice for him. Should he be on his own though? You know car accident, head injury?"

"He'll be fine he went with his girlfriend, told me not to worry and have fun at yours," Jack was looking at him slightly strangely and Ianto wondered whether Jack had seen through his last lie, "What's wrong?" He asked, hoping that Jack wouldn't doubt what he had been told.

"Since when did your Dad have a girlfriend?" Ianto sighed and quickly responded with a simple:

"Since two weeks ago."

* * *

Owen had walked home alone that night. Jack and Ianto had headed off together towards Jack's house and he had planned to walk with Tosh, who then – to his disappointment – told him that she was going in town with Adam. Gwen and Rhys decided to tag along for the trip which left him on his own.

Not that he minded.

On his way home, he did something that was unlike the Owen that he was confident to be. Crossing the road by the shop where he and Jack usually waited in the morning, he made his way into the florists that was opposite and brought a bouquet of flowers for Tosh before walking them down to Tosh's house.

He knocked on the door and waited politely outside on the door step for the door to be opened. Toshiko's mother answered it and he handed her the flowers with a simple comment of:

"There for Tosh."

As he was making his way back past Ianto's house he saw a man in the driveway looking at a hire vehicle. Owen assumed that this man was Ianto's Dad, so he said hello.

"Hello Mr Jones." The man looked up at him and smiled slightly, but Owen guessed that he wasn't really sure as to who he actually was. Owen made his way up the drive and extended a hand, "I'm Owen Harper and I'm a friend of Ianto's."

The man seemed to realise who he was now, yet that still didn't bring him to say anything, so Owen turned waved and said goodbye, wondering if Ianto's Dad was always like that or only like it to strangers. Or maybe he was only like it since his wife had died.

When Owen got home he put the TV on and expected a boring evening to come ahead of him. And that was exactly what happened.

* * *

Eventually they had decided on Jubilee pizza and – mainly from what Jack had ordered – cost them something around sixty quid if Ianto remembered rightly. Jack had brought in the popcorn that he had bought from Morrison's a few minutes before the pizza's arrived

Jack had brought a massive amount of food – most of which Ianto couldn't eat at the minute and wouldn't want even if he could have it – meaning that Jack was going to be stuck having to eat most of it.

The order consisted of: One small six sliced American Hot pizza; a Hot and Spicy small six sliced pizza; a small six sliced cheese and tomato pizza; apparently gourmet garlic bread; potato wedges; a tub of coleslaw; a one point twenty five litre bottle of Coca Cola; triple chocolate cookies; Belgian waffles and a tub of Ben & Jerrys Chocolate Fudge Brownie and Phish Food ice cream.

Looking at the receipt, the whole thing cost Jack sixty pounds and seventy pence.

"Jack that is far too much to spend on pizza." Ianto told him as he brought in the whole order, minus the ice cream which was now in the freezer.

"It's not just pizza though Ianto."

"Yeah, but I can't eat most of it Jack remember."

"Doesn't matter, because I can still eat it."

"Yeah, but sixty pounds Jack that's just-" Ianto didn't finish his sentence when Jack put a tub of coleslaw on the fold up table that he had brought into the living room about ten minutes ago, "You brought coleslaw, why did you buy coleslaw?"

"Because you're not eating enough vegetables." Ianto couldn't help, but smile slightly. Once Jack had put everything on the table he exited the room and headed to the kitchen before returning with a few plates and some cutlery. He didn't plan on using any, but he knew that Ianto would.

Jack put on the first James Bond film, _Dr. No_. It was half five when they sat down with their food and had the film playing. An hour and forty nine minutes later – putting the current time at nineteen minutes past seven – Jack got up from the sofa and picked the empty plates and boxes up before turning to Ianto.

"Do you want any ice cream?"

"No thank you I don't like ice cream."

"Everyone likes ice cream."

"Well I just don't alright."

"Do you want anything else then?"

"No thank you."

"Okay. I'll be back in a minute." Jack told Ianto as he stood and balanced all of the boxes on top of the plates.

"I'll help you." Ianto replied and made moves to get up, however Jack pushed him back down.

"No you won't." Jack took the finished stuff out into the kitchen before bringing himself a bowl of ice cream back in as well as all of the other deserts that he had ordered and a bowl with a spoon for Ianto just in case the younger changed his mind and decided that he did want something after all.

It was about twenty five minutes past seven when they finally started to watch _From Russia with Love_. That film was an hour and fifty five minutes making it nine twenty. Jack was still making his way through the stack of waffles when he got up to change the DVD and grab the pot of ice cream that he had opened.

_Gold Finger_ had always been one of Jack's favourites and apparently one of Ianto's as well. _Gold Finger _was an hour and fifty minutes long and by the time it had finished it was ten minutes past eleven and yet both Ianto and Jack were still wide awake – Jack was still probably awake, because of all of the chocolate that he had eaten earlier.

_Thunderball _was the fourth James Bond film and was the longest out of the others that they had watched that night as it was two hours and ten minutes long. They both knew that by the time the film ended that it would be around twenty past one in the morning, but neither particularly minded.

When it reached midnight, Jack noticed that Ianto had fallen asleep, resting against him, but Jack didn't want to get up and move to turn the film off as then he would run the risk of waking Ianto – who needed his sleep – so he left it on as he didn't mind watching it.

About ten minutes later, Ianto woke up to the sound of a gun shot from the film and Jack had to remind Ianto that they had been watching James Bond before he decided to fall asleep.

"What was that?" Ianto asked as he shuffled slightly closer to Jack, looking around the room in a way that Jack considered to be a slightly paranoid sort of way or like a horse that had just been spooked by the whistling wind.

"It was just from the film, we were watching _Thunderball_ remember?"

"Yeah, sorry I fell asleep."

"Doesn't matter if you're tired I'd rather you feel asleep than ended up exhausted and besides you need sleep to recover." The pair smiled at each other before settling back down to how they had been before to go back to the film.

Ianto managed to stay awake for another half an hour before he fell asleep again- this time not resting against Jack – which allowed him to get up and leave the room momentarily to grab a blanket which he covered Ianto with before settling down himself in a seated position at the other end of the sofa, deciding to keep watching the films, but with the volume turned down a quite a lot, so that it would accidently wake Ianto again.

When Jack changed the film to _You Only Live Twice _he noticed that Ianto was breathing differently. At first he had believed the sound to be coming from the TV or somewhere else in the house until he played the film and sat back on the sofa next to Ianto when it became obvious that it was Ianto's breathing.

Instead of taking what were usually calm, silent breaths while you were sleeping he noticed that the breaths Ianto was taking, were sounding more like some kind of coarse whistling sound.

Jack paused the film for a second with the remote – which he had remembered to bring over with him this time – and listened to Ianto's breathing alone for about fifth teen minutes before it returned to normal, so he resumed the film, but still keeping an eye on the younger every ten minutes.

Ianto's breathing returned to the same wheezing state a little later and if Ianto had been awake, then he may have been aware of the pain in his stomach returning. The rest of the night past with Jack being asleep as well before he was woken early on Saturday morning by something that sound far too much like choking for his liking.

* * *

I hope to update again on Monday. I haven't seen James Bond in ages, so a lot of that information I looked up. I hope you liked this chapter, thanks for reading, favouriting, alerting and reviewing.

Note: All of the James Bond film titles are in italics.


	10. Chapter 10

Okay thank you for all of the reviews, favourites and alerts. I will also be uploading my new story today or tomorrow, so I hope you like that as well. Any way here is chapter ten.

* * *

Jack sat up quickly and looked to Ianto. As carefully as he could – while still being quick – he pulled Ianto up from where he was laying and shook him awake. Ianto took in a massive gasp of breath as he did so before he leant back against Jack.

The older wrapped his arms around the younger, who was still breathing heavily, the same coarse whistling sound present with everyone that he took. When Ianto seemed to be breathing slightly better, was when Jack spoke again.

"Right I'm phoning your Dad." Jack said before reaching forwards slightly for his phone, "Too bad about his weekend away, you're not very well and I reckon that he should look after you at home." The American thought obviously, that he was doing the better thing for Ianto, when really if he phoned the man he would only do the opposite.

Luckily Ianto had practise with quick thinking. "No!" He almost shouted as he reached out and grabbed Jack's hand to stop it from reaching the mobile phone, "This has been happening since the accident, broken ribs remember."

Jack pulled his hand from Ianto's grip and moved it back to be at his side, "You're sure that you are okay though?"

"Yeah they released me from hospital even though that's how I slept when I there. It's just, because of how I broke the rib that it happens and you know compressed stomach tissue and all that." Jack seemed to believe him.

"Okay if you're totally sure," Ianto nodded, "So you still want to go to the museum then?" Jack asked.

"Yeah if you are still willing to take me?" Ianto asked back.

"Why would I not want to Ianto Jones?" They both smiled.

One hour later, making it just gone ten o clock, Jack and Ianto left the elders house and make their way towards the museum. Jack smiled at Ianto as they walked inside and watched as Ianto looked awe at the building, which from the outside didn't too important.

It made Jack wonder if Ianto had ever been to a museum before in his life, so he voiced his opinion.

"You like it?" He asked.

"It's slightly different to what I had expected."

"Ianto have you ever been to a museum before?" Ianto seemed slightly shocked that Jack had asked his question.

"Truthfully no I haven't ever been to a museum before, first time. Why is there a particular reason as to why you asked?"

"No I just wondered I mean you were looking around like you were from some foreign country that had never seen clean water before, so I just wondered."

"Okay I was just asking." The pair made their way towards the dinosaur exhibit that Jack had wanted to show Ianto. The younger – as Jack had already predicted before – loved it.

* * *

Owen woke up at around eleven that morning to find his phone beeping constantly. He pulled himself up from his comfortable bed and walked over to find his phone that was hidden somewhere in the messy room.

He managed to find it eventually on the floor under a pile of papers for geography that Owen wasn't quite sure what he was meant to be doing with. He didn't even know whether they were homework or not, old or new, anything.

The phone screen was telling him that he had five unread messages. When he opened them he found that one was from Gwen, two were from Jack and two were from Tosh. He read Gwen's first although it was only telling him that she had been given a letter that was meant for him.

So he moved on to Tosh's. The first one asked him if he wanted to join her in town. Owen realised now that he must of has the TV's volume on very loud not to be able to hear his phone go off when that message was actually sent yesterday.

The second was her asking if he was free after school on Monday and to thank him for the flowers. He could only assume that now Adam was gone, she wanted to see him again, although he had to admit that he had forgotten all about the flowers. Owen left her texts alone for moment, unsure of what to do and turned to Jack's.

The first one that Jack had sent him had been sent at about half past one. He wondered why Jack would be texting him at half one in the morning. The message asked if he was free today. Owen moved onto the second one from him and found that it said the same thing, but just a bit more in depth, giving him some times with places that he would be.

Owen put his phone down on his bed and got changed before deciding what to do with his day and whose texts to reply or not reply to. He looked at Jack's one more time before leaving the house.

* * *

Tosh sat at her desk in her bedroom, typing away on her laptop. She was working on some homework, but when she had finished that she had already decided that she wanted to work on some more of her computers programs. Owen hadn't replied to her texts yet, but she knew that he didn't get up very early on weekends.

His liked to make up for lost sleeping hours that the week caused him to lose by making him go to school. Tosh had found it quite funny when he had first told them all about how he felt regarding school. It had turned into quite a rant that they had all listened to before laughing at some level before lunch had ended.

She had the flowers that Owen had left with her mum yesterday after school, placed on the bedside table beside her bed, so that she could see them when she woke up. Her phone bleeped from beside her and she picked it up and read the id.

Owen. She opened the message and smiled at the simple _yes I would_ and _you're welcome _that his reply consisted off. Suddenly Monday afternoon was beginning to look very good.

* * *

Jack had sat Ianto down a little while ago, so that they could eat lunch. They were eating in the museums café, not that Ianto was eating too much food. He was drinking water and was eating an apple – an apple that Jack was currently cutting up for him.

"I'm sorry I must look stupid not being able to cut up an apple."

"It's alright, you can't be expected to with a fractured wrist at least not without risking cutting yourself, which I don't really want to see if I can manage it." Jack replied as he finished cutting the apple and placed the final two slices onto the plate and handed it back to Ianto.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome," Jack replied as he took a sip from his bottle of coke. He noticed that Ianto was looking at him slightly strangely, so he tilted his head and frowned slightly, "Is there something wrong?"

"Have can you drink that?"

"What it tastes nice and it gives you energy."

"Energy from sugar yes, from fruit no." Ianto replied as he picked up a slice of apple and ate it as if to put extra emphasis on what he had just said.

"Have you never had coke before?"

"Yes when I was like eight."

"And you didn't like it?"

"No I didn't."

"How can you not like coke?"

"I don't know Jack. How can you like it?" The pair were laughing again before changing topics onto different kinds of fruit, where Ianto discovered that Jack only ate three different fruits and three different vegetables.

The pair left the museum later to return to Jack's house, too busy talking to notice the figure that followed them until they turned down towards Jack's house.

* * *

Owen knocked on the door of the massive house, believing that he had the wrong address and was already preparing to see someone that he didn't know when Jack answered the door.

"Hi Owen," Jack said watching the others face as he looked around the whole exterior of the house that he was stood outside, "You like it?"

"Yeah I do now I have one question how do you afford it?"

"My parents pay for it. You do know that Ianto said the same thing when he saw it," Owen stood there still just looking before Jack spoke again, "Are you coming in or not?" Owen pushed Jack aside as he walked in, desperate to see the inside of the house, which was just as nice as the outside.

He walked into the living room and sat down next to Ianto with a smile.

Jack had shut the door and walked into the kitchen to continue cooking. He had decided on pasta, as he was pretty certain that Ianto could eat that and he didn't mind it and he guessed that Owen wouldn't either.

The TV had been on and Owen switched the channel to have it on _Come dine with me _on _Channel four _only to have Ianto tell him that he had never seen it before in his life - if his jaw could actually drop like cartoon characters do – then he was sure that his would have.

He had also put chips in the oven, knowing that chips were made from potato, so they could count as a portion of fruit or veg. Jack was aware that Owen liked chips and he did.

Owen had spent the next five minutes explaining to Ianto how _Come dine with me_ worked.

"Okay so you get four or five different guests who are complete strangers to each other, who then all attend a dinner party at each person's house and then rate them on a three course meal and their hosting from zero to ten."

"But why? I mean what's the point in meeting complete strangers and cooking them a meal?"

"To try and win one thousand pounds. I love it when two people who both hate each other win and they have to spilt the money between them. Oh and some of the comments that they give it other, it's just so funny I can't believe that you have never seen it."

"I only watch things like the news and educational stuff, because I don't really have time to watch too much TV like you do Owen." Ianto told the person who was sat next to him before he went back to talking about _Come dine with me._

"But what I still don't get is why you would bother to put yourself on TV and have people make some nice or some not so nice comments about the meal that you cook for them. To me that just seems like a pointless waste of time."

"I know mate, but it's so funny to watch." Owen replied before they both turned back to the screen to see people arriving at this guy's house dressed as different animals that you find on a farm. Owen laughed and Ianto rolled his eyes.

Jack fetched the pair for tea and laid the table while they came out to the dining room. The first thing Ianto and Owen noticed was how big the room was. The table wasn't even half laid - the table cloth didn't cover all of it - and it looked like it could easily seat two or three big families, maybe three families of five or six people.

"Whoa Jack how big a table do you need?"

"It's always been there even when I was a small child and my parents still lived here and there was just the four of us."

"Three."

"What?" Jack asked, turning to face Owen.

"You said the four of you. As far as I was counting you only mentioned yourself and your parents."

"Oh yeah, sorry my mistake. Sit down both of you I didn't spend that much time cooking for you to not eat the meal that I have cooked." The pair sat down before Jack did, although Ianto didn't simply believe that Jack had made a slip of words there. The young Welsh found it a much more deliberate placing of words.

They had just finished eating when Owen blurted out a number.

"Seven."

"Seven what?" Jack asked slightly confused, where Ianto wasn't.

"He was watching that _Come dine with me_ program on channel four earlier," Ianto replied before mumbling, "I'm never watching it with him again."

"Oh I love that program." Jack replied, causing Ianto to roll his eyes again and sigh. He looked over to the back of the room and noticed something that he hadn't noticed before hand.

"Jack you have a piano and you didn't tell me?" Ianto asked not quite understanding why Jack hadn't mentioned the piano before.

"Why would I need to tell you that?" He asked back. Owen was just sat looking slightly confused before he stood up and left the room.

"Because I play the piano Jack that's why." Ianto replied.

"You play the piano? Ianto why did you not tell me this before?"

"I guess I just never really found the right time to mention it to you."

"You're a man of mystery Ianto Jones and I'm guessing that's not all that I don't know about you." Ianto had to stop himself from laughing at that comment, because there was so much that Jack didn't know about him.

"I play the guitar as well."

"Good God, I never knew this why did I never know this." Jack replied as Owen walked back into the room eating a tub of ice cream.

"What did you never know?" He asked and so Jack and Ianto explained the whole conversation again.

Later that night Jack had taken Ianto upstairs and tucked him into bed. When he was sure that Ianto was asleep he and Owen walked in and sat on the floor listening to Ianto's breathing.

Owen held his phone in his hands and the minute Ianto started wheezing he wanted to get up and see what was wrong, but he – like Jack refrained himself from doing so and remained where he was sat and pressed record on his mobile.

Slowly they left the room and the minute they were out of the way, Jack turned to Owen a slightly expectant look on his face.

* * *

Ianto woke up on Sunday with Jack sat beside him, watching him, Ianto guessed that the older boy had also been watching him sleep.

"Were you watching me all night?"

"Not all night," Jack started, "Most of it though."

"That's just-" Ianto wanted to say creepy, although the action was actually quite sweet.

* * *

Owen sat at home, lying on the floor of his bedroom, rifling through book after book of medical knowledge, looking for any signs that related to Ianto's. He played the recording over and over again, listening to the coarse whistling sound, which he knew so much about, but yet so little.

Wheezing, as Owen was already aware, could be caused by many things, however as of yet he had found nothing that so referred to Ianto's symptoms – which didn't exist other than the bad breathing – which was most likely down to the injury to his ribs.

Owen sighed and rested his head against his hands. He was completely stuck.

* * *

Toshiko felt like banging her head against the desk as she looked at the page sourcing that she couldn't decipher. It was really beginning to annoy her and she had only been working on it for half an hour – an amount of time (which for her) was very short in comparison.

She stood up and moved away from the desk and sat down on her bed, looking at the flowers that Owen had given her and breathing in their scent before sighing deeply and picking up one of her numerous books on computers.

* * *

Jack and Ianto spent the whole of Sunday playing games – most of which were won by Ianto – especially chess, as Jack soon found out.

Ianto was brilliant at chess.

The younger had also managed to win Cludeo, Jenga and Monopoly, but Jack had won trivial pursuit (the film version,) but Ianto hadn't seen many of the films, so it was a little bit unfair.

At least Ianto wasn't like Owen when he lost – that meant throwing a tantrum and screaming until someone finally decided that he could be the winner instead – to which he would then happily sit back down and insist that they played again, so that he could once again win.

Usually though, he would – one again – lose.

* * *

Ianto had decided to leave before it got dark. He lied to Jack saying that his Dad would be worried if he was home before it was dark and Jack understood that. When Ianto was walking he noticed footsteps following and looked over his shoulder slightly before quickening his pace until he got home.

As he walked up his drive, the following footsteps stopped dead, however Ianto had the feeling that whoever had been following him was still watching. The lights were on in the house and Ianto could already predict a shouting match.

That was until he looked up and froze dead just by the front door to the house. His bedroom light was on.

He considered the chances he had to just walk away and pretend that he had never been here, but he could guess that his Dad probably already knew that he was here and he was right as the door opened and he was pulled – roughly – inside by his fractured wrist and pushed against the door, in effect shutting it.

His Dad's voice growled at him.

"I saw that friend of yours the other day."

"Which one?" Ianto asked through slightly pained gasps as his Dad gripped his wrist tightly – making Ianto feel like it was going to snap off completely.

"Owen, Owen someone, Owen Hopper."

"Harper," Ianto corrected before wishing that he hadn't even said anything. His Dad growled something at him that Ianto didn't exactly hear, but didn't need to hear to know what he should answer with, "His name is Owen Harper."

"So where exactly were you then for the weekend?"

"Nowhere."

"So you're telling me that you just dropped off of the planet?"

"Sometimes I wish I could." Ianto used as much force as he could to push his Dad away from him – and although it hurt his wrist – it did make him let go. He then moved to do what he had always used to do and run, but of course he had forgotten about his ankle and almost went flying.

His Dad caught him roughly, wrapping his arms around his son's stomach before grabbing his shoulder and forced it out of its socket, before elbowing him in the ribs and punching him in the stomach before letting go of the hold that he had.

Ianto collapsed to the floor and wished at that second that Jack would come charging through the door like he did in school sometimes when he was late.

He smiled slightly before he lost consciousness.

* * *

Okay I will update again on Thursday or Friday, sorry this is late I had lots of problems logging in.


	11. Chapter 11

Sorry I meant to upload this last night and I just completely forgot about it, but here is chapter evelen.

* * *

Ianto groaned as he blinked his eyes open and the world around him shifted back into focus. The door was straight in front of him and everything came flooding back to him as he remembered the events of last night and of course the pain was no exception.

He had to use both arms to pull himself up and groaned as his wrist struggled to support his weight. His shoulder – being dislocated on the same arm as his wrist – did nothing to help and he soon found himself back on the floor.

Trying again Ianto sat himself up before shuffling slightly to reach where his crutches lay on the floor. Gripping them he pulled himself up, almost falling back down again as his stomach protested to him suddenly being stood up straight, rather than curled up on the floor.

He only had to take one look at the clock before he started to panic that he may end up late for school if he didn't hurry up and get ready. His Dad was nowhere in sight, not that Ianto had anything against that. After taking four minutes to get up the stairs he entered his bedroom and looked out of the window to find the hire car gone.

* * *

Toshiko waited patiently outside of Ianto's house. He smiled at her slightly when he walked out of the door although she sensed that something was different as he was moving slower today than he had been last week.

"Morning Ianto." She said as he reached her. Ianto didn't reply, but just continued walking. When they met up with Gwen and Rhys, Ianto was still locked in his silence. Gwen and Rhys walked hand in hand, discussing presents.

That was when Ianto remembered that he still had to buy Rhys a birthday present.

Owen wasn't with Jack when they reached where they usually meet the pair. Tosh looked slightly saddened by this, but if she was then she hid it well. Jack joined the group in walking and moved to be beside Ianto.

The elder threw his arm around Ianto's shoulder, which he tried to ignore as the pain flared up again. Not only had he been in a rush this morning, but he hadn't been able to relocate his shoulder himself – he didn't want to mention it to anyone else: too many questions would be asked.

"Did you get home alright last night?" Jack asked, "It wasn't too dark?"

"No I was fine." Ianto replied, not mentioning his Dad or the mysterious footsteps that had followed and most likely watched him make his way home as that may get Jack more worried than Ianto wanted him.

"So I was thinking," Jack started before lowering his voice, so that only Ianto could hear him, "You now that Rhys's birthday is on Sunday and well I was wondering if you wanted to go into town with me to get him a present?"

"Yes, I would love that." Ianto replied before adding, "I have no clue what to get him though." Jack laughed slightly before speaking again.

"Don't worry I have a few ideas from a list that Gwen gave me." As Jack looked down at Ianto he smiled, noticing that Ianto seemed happier lately than he had for ages. Of course he was unaware of Ianto's still painfully dislocated shoulder.

Ianto was lucky enough to not have to do PE later on and Jack was annoyed about it as he wouldn't be able to partner with Ianto for whatever they were going to be doing.

Owen was marked absent in registration and everything seemed a lot quieter without the want-to-be-doctor who usually provided a lot of the group's conversation, even if he did have a horrible mouth at times. Tosh seemed to be missing him the most. Adam wasn't here anymore and Ianto was glad as he hadn't really liked Adam.

"Did either of you see Owen over the weekend?" Tosh asked them, "I text him, but I didn't actually see him."

"We saw him yesterday." Jack replied.

"Yes, he made me watch _Come dine with me _on _channel four_," Ianto added, "It was terrible."

"Oh I watch that when there's nothing much else on the TV if I have some free time." Toshiko replied before going back to Owen, "Was he alright yesterday?"

"Yeah he was before we ate dinner and he seemed to be alright afterwards, at least before-"

"What if you gave him food poisoning Jack?" Ianto asked, suddenly worried as to whether his health was safe.

* * *

Owen yawned and stretched as he opened his eyes. He was still lying on the floor, numerous books sprawled out in front of him, covering an awful lot of his bedroom floor. Reaching out a hand he looked for his phone, grabbing a hold of the item and pulling it closer to him before unlocking the phone to view the time.

"S***!" He exclaimed as he jumped up from the floor and moved over to the wardrobe to find his school uniform and PE kit. He was already one hour late making it nine forty. Owen tried to look on the bright side: it would only be about just gone ten when he arrived, so he would make it in time for his second lesson.

As predicted Owen made it in time to go to geography where he was greeted by Rhys and a lesson full of words that he couldn't understand.

* * *

Ianto and Gwen sat silently in IT typing up a document as to why one phone was better than the other and when they finished that, they had to do the same thing for two different computers. No one finished all of the work set for them by the end of the lesson and for Ianto it was even harder a she was only able to type using one hand which slowed him down considerably.

At the end of the lesson, Ianto left with Gwen and they went to meet Tosh, who had a free lesson as well and they sat down on the netball courts. The main subjects to their conversation being Jack, Owen and Rhys's birthday.

The sun was shining down upon them today like a set of bright lights, illuminated the scenes around them as they sat and talked. Ianto was glad that it wasn't dark, dull or raining. He didn't so much mind the last two, however he was sure that he was now developing a massive fear of the dark, because of the incident last night.

At break time Jack and Rhys met up with them, Owen in tow. Tosh's face visibly brightened as Owen sat down next to her.

"So anything interesting happened yet?" Jack asked, "I'm assuming that the world hasn't ended." Ianto smiled slightly at Jack's try at making a funny start to their conversation.

"No not just yet." Ianto replied not feeling at all hungry as his friends started eating and although Owen was talking to Tosh, Ianto saw Owen's eyes watching him when he though that the younger wasn't looking.

"Did you ask about changing your drama lessons, so that you could spend them with me in my free lesson instead?"

"No I forgot."

"Well I'll come with you and we can ask at lunch." Ianto nodded in reply.

At the end of break, Gwen and Tosh left the group to go to their double art lesson. The guys stayed together and went to their double PE lesson. Apart from Ianto, it was the only lesson that the others had with John.

Ianto of course, was excused from PE, because of his injuries which Ianto wasn't annoyed about at all since he absolutely hated his physical education lessons. He and Rhys had walked on ahead, so they hadn't noticed when Jack and Owen slowed down to walk beside each other.

"Why were you so late Owen?" Jack asked, not quite guessing what Owen wanted to talk about.

"I stayed up all night reading about you know the problem you found with Ianto and I think I've figured out a list of possible problems with Ianto." Owen replied.

"A list?" Jack questioned, "How much is on it?"

"I think it had about six, last time I counted." Owen informed his worried friend.

"And how many of them end in possible death?"

"Two or three I believe if I remember rightly, you see something's are a bit fussy in my mind, I don' think my brains kicked back in yet."

"Owen, moving on, did you write down all of the symptoms for them?"

"Yeah I did, I'll give you the list in a minute if you want." Owen said as they sped up to get to class on time – not that either of them were really overly bothered about being late.

Today they were playing football on the schools netball courts, not Jack's ideal choice, but he would have to make do with that. Ianto was sat on one of the benches watching them since he had nothing much better to do with the time.

Owen and Rhys ended up on the opposite team to Jack, who – very unluckily and extremely annoyingly may he add – ended on up the same team as John.

"So when we win can I have a kiss?" John asked as he made to walk past Jack to get to his position.

"No." Jack replied as John walked away, seriously beginning to consider his options to getting away from him, but one look over to Ianto quickly put him in a better mood once again.

The scores ended up tied at two to two by the time that they were only a few minutes away from finishing their match. In the end Owen's team won, which resulted in endless cheering from Owen and Rhys. Jack wasn't bothered by losing and walked straight over to be by Ianto who gave him a smile and a simple;

"Well done." Jack smiled back in return and replied with a "Thank you."

Ianto stayed outside while the others went into get changed and grab their stuff. After spending two hours sat on a bench watching Jack, Owen and Rhys play football, Ianto was quite thoroughly bored. John walked over to him and Ianto tried to spot the others, but to no avail.

The older sat down beside him before speaking. One thing Ianto noticed was that he seemed to be acting civil towards him today.

"I saw you with Jack earlier."

"So?" Ianto mumbled his reply even though he hadn't intended on saying anything or John hearing anything that he did say. Although he thought from the look on his face that he might have.

"Well I thought I told you to stay away from him?" Ianto remained silent for a moment, liking how it gave him some time to think of a reply or at least something that could stall John's slightly violent side from becoming present again.

"Ianto! Did or didn't I tell you to stay away from him by Monday at the latest?" John asked, his voice now becoming laced with that familiar tone of anger.

"Yes you did." Ianto replied, now feeling slightly nervous.

"Well if I was you I would-" John didn't get to finish his sentence.

"Um excuse me can I ask what's going on or would I be interrupting something important?" Jack asked as he walked over to Ianto with Owen and Rhys walking behind him like body guards. John smiled at his ex-boyfriend.

"I was just telling Ianto what he missed in his art lesson last week and you know what he needs to do." John replied to Jack's question before turning his head to face Ianto, "Well if I was you I would print off some pictures of Andy Warhol's work and stick them in your book with a colourful background."

John Hart stood up and left the group alone. Jack glared daggers at the others back as he left and the moment that he was out of sight he moved over to a now stood up Ianto.

"I find it hard to believe he was helping you," He started, "What was really going on?"

"Nothing. For once he was doing what he said he was." Ianto replied and Jack – having heard what John had said before he walked off – couldn't argue that fact with Ianto.

The group sat down and waited for Tosh and Gwen who arrived in a relatively short time after they had sat down. The moment they got there Jack was on his feet.

"Right I'm off to reception." He walked off in the direction that he needed as Owen got to his feet as well.

"I'm hungry, so I'm going to get food."

"I'll come with you." Tosh added as she put her bag down before walking off with Owen telling Ianto, Gwen and Rhys that they would be back in a minute. Rhys took that as his turn to leave.

"I need to speak to Mr Duke about playing on the school football team." He told them, "I'll be back soon Love." He said mainly to Gwen, so Ianto ignored that last part.

Either way, everyone's resent departures left him alone with Gwen. By now, Ianto didn't care what Gwen thought, but he knew that he would have to ask her as his shoulder was annoying him so much that he couldn't stand it.

"Gwen?"

"Yes sweetheart?"

"Can you help me? I think my shoulders dislocated." After talking her through resetting it she did and apologized almost profusely when Ianto yelled at how painful it was, but he told her not to worry. And in a very un-Gwen fashion she didn't question him on it.

Jack returned with a big smile on his face and a slight spring to his step which went when he sat back down.

"Ianto Jones, you are now going to be spending every one of your drama lessons with me as you can't take part and I have a whole free hour."

"You got them to say yes?" Ianto questioned.

"Yep for the next five weeks." Jack replied. Ianto smiled and looked to Gwen – who he thought by now would have mentioned something to Jack about his shoulder – but had said and done nothing, except for giving him the slightly nod of her head as if reading his pleas and for that he was grateful, the smile remaining on his face.

* * *

Tosh walked beside Owen as they made their way from the canteen back to the netball courts where the others were sat. She was busy thinking about spending some time after school tonight with Owen and what they could do.

"So is this a going to be a date?" She asked, almost completely out of the blue for Owen, who now seemed slightly shocked.

"Is what a date?"

"Us, hanging out after school. Is it a date or just another thing to do to waste time?" She replied, going slightly deeper into what she meant by her earlier question. Owen seemed thoughtful for a second before replying.

"Yeah it's a date." Tosh smiled and visibly became happier, "But it's just the one date and I still get to flirt with other girls." At the minute Tosh couldn't really care for the conditions.

"Yeah, that's fine, of course that's fine." She told him, not really minding if he didn't even spend time with her after school again. One date was a start, it was a small start, however it was a start never the less.

* * *

Rhys, Owen and Tosh returned a little later and the group spent the remainder of the lunch time talking and eating (the last with the exception of Ianto) before they had to leave for the final lesson of the day.

Tosh went to Geography and Gwen went – now on her own – to drama. Owen and Rhys went to IT and Jack stayed outside with Ianto. There was a slight breeze now that blew cooling down what the sun was trying to heat up. Not that the pair minded as it had been getting far too warm for their liking.

They each talked about something in turn and when Ianto spoke to Jack that afternoon it was mainly telling him about how he learned to play both the piano and the guitar. Jack was the one that asked for that information and Ianto was happy to give it to him.

Jack spoke about his parent's job, something that Ianto hadn't been expecting at all. Of course he wasn't told all of it as it was a _'Harkness family secret,' _as Jack put it, but he learnt a lot more than he knew before.

Ianto had never been to Scotland and found himself wondering if Jack had or knew what Scotland was like. Maybe one day Ianto would find the time to take himself up to Scotland, but until then he would have to suffer the tales of it.

* * *

At the end of the day, Tosh and Owen set off in the other direction for town and Ianto walked with Gwen, Rhys and Jack. They spilt up from Jack and continued walking until Ianto spilt up with Gwen and Rhys to walk the rest of the way home on his own.

He walked up the drive, breathing a sigh of relief when he noticed that there was no hire car parked there. Of course there would always be the present possibility that Ianto's Dad may take the car back, but Ianto found that highly unlikely knowing his Dad as well as he knew him.

Ianto let himself in before shutting the door behind him. He noticed a stack of mail on the floor that must have been put through the letterbox earlier by the postman. He picked it all up and placed it on the side of the telephone table and went to walk off up the stairs to his bedroom before quickly turning back to face the table and the post that he had just discarded.

On the top was a letter addressed to him, but that wasn't quite what had him so shocked. It was where it was from that had him so confused.

* * *

Jack found his house slightly empty last night, not having Ianto's breathing to keep him awake (not that he had minded that at all) and had decided that he would rather have company in the big house.

He'd always thought that living alone here made him seem braver to all of his friends, but now he was just feeling slightly lonely all of the time when he wasn't with other people. Jack sighed as he let himself in before shutting the door, kicking off his shoes and throwing his bag down onto the floor in the same messy way that he normally did.

Then Jack made his way into the lounge, deciding to see what was on TV and grab himself some coke to drink while he watched the interesting square box.

What he really wasn't expecting was to walk into the room to find his mother sat on the sofa.

* * *

Okay I will update again on Monday or maybe really late on Sunday evening dependent on how busy I am this weekend. I hope you like this chapter. Thank you to everyone who reviewed this story so far I really appreciate it. Thank for also for favouriting, alerting and of course reading.


	12. Chapter 12

Sorry this is late up. I wasn't happy with it a first, so I rewrote part of it and then by laptop just died on me, so I'm borrowing my cousins. Anyway thank you for all of the reviews, so far as well as the alerts and favourites.

* * *

It wasn't that Jack wasn't happy to see his mum again that he didn't say anything, but because he was in slight shock at her being here. Her work usually kept her busy to the level of being rushed off of her feet to exhaustion.

She hadn't written a letter to him or called him in a while. He got a text of apologies from her, but that was never the same as speaking or actually seeing someone again. When Jack finally spoke, he was sure that his voice carried his confusion.

"Mum, what are you doing here?" He asked before adding, "Not that I'm not pleased to see you and all, but you know, it's been a long time."

She smiled at him before hinting towards the space that was next to her on the sofa, "Come and sit down, Son," Jack sat down next to his mother who then wrapped her arms around him, "It's a bit of a long story."

Jack looked up at her, slightly confused before replying with, "I've got the time to listen."

* * *

Ianto sat on his bed looking at the white envelope of the letter that he hadn't even dared to open yet. It was stupid, but he felt far too afraid to do so. The letter eventually ended up hidden under some of his stuff on his side table.

Lying on his bed, Ianto thought about everything that had happened in his life and wondered whether the letter was even worth opening just to get what he predicted to be more bad news.

When his Dad came home, the man ignored him and moved around the house as if Ianto's bedroom didn't even exist. Ianto had no complaint about this as it made it much easier to avoid getting injured and to keep his Dad finding out about the letter he had received.

* * *

Owen was going over his list again. He hadn't been able to spend too much time with Ianto today, so he wasn't able to watch for anything much.

He couldn't help smiling though when he thought about the time that he had spent with Tosh. They had gone to one of the café's that were in town and had coffee and cake – both of them decided that Ianto made better coffee than the shop – before getting up and going back to Owen's to play pool.

* * *

Tosh had won two games and Owen had won three. The time had escaped them and soon Owen found himself walking Tosh home and then heading back to his house to be at the point of time that he was currently at now.

* * *

Gwen was busy wrapping Rhys birthday present and writing his card. She liked to have things like this done in advance and was glad that they would be able to have a fun weekend.

Despite the fact that his birthday was on Sunday they had decided to have a massive party on the Saturday. On the Sunday, Gwen was going to Rhys's to spend an evening with his family.

* * *

The next morning, Ianto met Tosh as usual and everything seemed normal. In his bag was the letter as he hadn't been willing to leave it at home in fear that his Dad may decide to have another one of his tidy ups which – not that Ianto had ever mentioned it – where the exact opposite of that.

If he did then he would definitely find the letter and until Ianto decided what he was going to do about it, the letter was staying with him and no one else.

Gwen handed Ianto a list of ideas for presents that Rhys might like and the pair started a conversation as they walked along while Rhys talked to Tosh.

"Were you alright yesterday?" Gwen asked, "You know, because you asked me sort out your shoulder."

"I was fine, just knocked it stupidly and didn't really notice at first you know since I had that car accident." Gwen nodded and didn't say anything more on the subject.  
Owen was waiting with Jack and from what the others could see, Owen was trying to get information from the group's sort-of-leader person. Jack, as always, was holding a stiff upper lip and not giving Owen the answers that he obviously wanted.

"Morning all of you." Jack said as the others walked up towards them. Owen stopped his constant pressuring and moved to walk beside Toshiko. The minute that Ianto had looked at Jack properly, he knew that there was something wrong.

"Jack are you alright?" He asked as they walked. Jack turned his head to face him before smiling, although to Ianto – who had learned a long time ago how to lie and hold up a brilliant façade himself – it was obviously a fake one to try and reassure Ianto that he was fine.

"I should be asking you that, but yeah I'm alright thanks." Ianto didn't say anything else on the subject, but he was well aware that Jack was the opposite of what he said he was.

Ianto waited for Jack to speak again, all too aware that he would, "Ianto I'm going to have to cancel that plan to take you into town, sorry, but I-" Jack didn't get to finish as Owen interrupted the conversation to draw both of them into his current one about Tosh organising a pool tournament at his house for them all.

Ianto had no real clue what sort of behaviour to expect from John later and Jack's strange behaviour was only adding to the situation that he felt was slowly becoming hopeless again.

Owen spent most of registration trying to do his maths homework - which Tosh and Ianto had to help him with - because Owen had done his usual and not listened to his teacher. Jack had smirked, because he had already done it and to most people his current outlook seemed to be a happy one.

Although Ianto knew that Jack was using it as a pretense to hide how sad he actually was.  
Ianto sat next to Tosh in maths and wondered whether Jack would still tell him what he was going to earlier or whether he would leave it.

Once their teacher had explained the topic - which to most of them, didn't actually need explaining - she set them a worksheet to do on translating shapes, so at the same time Tosh and Ianto set up a conversation between the pair of them.

"So Ianto are you going to Rhys birthday party this year?" Toshiko asked , choosing the topic, "It's just that you didn't come last year or the years before that either."

"Yeah I hope to definitely come this year." Ianto replied, Toshiko smiled.

"Good you can keep me company then. Highly doubt that Owen will dance with me for one second." Ianto became slightly confused by her sentence.

"Really? I thought that the two of you were like together now you know, like a couple."

"I was thinking the same about you and Jack." Tosh replied with a smile and Ianto blushed.

"Me and Jack?" Ianto questioned her.

"Yeah you're good for each other." There was a silent pause as Ianto thought of what to say.

"So what are you getting Rhys?" Ianto asked changing the subject back to their original topic.

Almost everyone in the class sighed when they were given homework. Ianto was one of those that didn't think of it as an overly big deal, but he was just glad that they almost always gave him written homework now, rather than online homework as he struggled to do that at home.

Ianto was happy when science came that he would be with Jack again and thinking back to what Tosh had said earlier, he began to worry if Jack had thought about a possible relationship between the pair of them.

Biology was definitely the subject that Owen excelled in. The topic of today was all about genetic diseases and in the hour lesson that they had, Owen ended up contributing almost everything that was written on the board for them to copy down as notes in their books.

"Why do they always give me bad reports?" Owen asked Jack and Ianto as they copied down the notes, "I do an awful lot of work."

"Yeah in biology." Jack replied.

"Well that's still a lesson, it's still inside the school building." Owen added and after that the conversation fell dead as neither Jack or Ianto were in the mood to reply, but Ianto could see what Owen was still trying to do and that was to get information out of both of them.

Jack, because he had obviously seen something this morning that Ianto hadn't and then the younger guesses that Owen was looking at him, because he was close to Jack and may know something that no one else was aware of.

Which of course he didn't.

Break time came next and Ianto surprised most people by actually eating something today. At least, Tosh, Gwen and Rhys were surprised, Jack and Owen not so much, as they had seen Ianto eat over the weekend.  
Rhys made himself busy by handing them all pieces of paper with fancy wording on.

"Just letting you know about the details for Saturday," He explained when he had given them all the information sheets - bits of paper that younger children would call party invitations, "Don't want any of you getting the wrong times or place."

After that, Gwen and Rhys left them to go and find some of the other people that Rhys was inviting. "Right well I am going to go to the library next lesson, since I have a free lesson and I'm going to do some sleep reading." Owen told them. Ianto was intrigued by the sleep reading factor of that sentence.

"How do you sleep read?" He asked.

"You read a chapter or two - dependent on how quick a reader you are - and then you sleep."

"That wouldn't achieve much though, Owen," Tosh replied, "And it seems a bit pointless to me."

"Well that's how I learn you see, I sleep on things." Owen told Toshiko before Jack joined in the conversation.

"It's that why you always get bad reports? Because you end up sleeping through everything?" Tosh and Ianto couldn't help, but laugh slightly.

"Ha ha, Harkness, very funny. Although it's most likely true." That prompted another short round of laughing.

Ianto left the group to go to art and Tosh went to tech, with Jack going to art and Owen went to do exactly what he had said he was going to do.

John wasn't in art, which surprised Ianto, so he did what he was good at doing - playing for information. Ianto spoke to an old friend of John's (called Bill) who was very helpful in telling him that John had to take an exam for maths as he had been skipping his maths lessons to try and avoid doing it.

That made art a bit more fun and Ianto soon found that without John the lesson was a lot better. He was dragged into conversation by Bill and the rest of their group, however it hadn't been an overly bad conversation as the group seemed to talk about a few topics that had been in the news lately and Ianto found that they actually didn't always follow people around like headless chickens.

He headed to English and found Jack waiting outside of the building for him. They walked in together and sat down, slightly surprised to see that Tosh wasn't there yet – when they were about two minutes late in – although Owen not being there came as no surprise.

Ianto figured that he had probably fallen asleep and not managed to wake himself up yet. Maybe Toshiko had even gone to the library to get him?

There lesson was started by Mr Redford and they were all handed out a book for _'Of Mice And Men' _by _John Steinbeck. _They were on page fifthteen when Owen and Tosh walked in, receiving strange looks from most other members of their English class as they sat down and picked up the books that had been left on their desks for them.

Tosh wasn't looking at Owen, even though he was trying to get her too and she looked (in Ianto's opinion) slightly annoyed.

Owen sighed far too melodramatically as he opened the book, annoyed at having to read a novel that he had absolutely no interest in reading.

Ianto – having read the book three years ago when he was in year seven – already knew the plot and whole way that the story would play out, however he had no problems with reading it again. Also the fact that he had already read it would help him with the upcoming class work that was set for them to do on it.

When English ended, Owen was out of the room like a lightning bolt. He waited for the rest of them outside before they started walking to the netball courts, deeming it good enough weather still for them to do that.

The first thing that Owen did was complain until Rhys interrupted his – what seemed to be – never ending rant on numerous different topics, both inside and outside of school.

"So why were you and Tosh late?" He asked. Owen looked slightly guilty and Tosh seemed to be giving him a glare that would kill him if glares possessed such a power. Owen was slightly unsure of what to say, but he eventually spoke.

"I got in trouble and Tosh came and helped me." Owen told them all.

"Got forced into helping you." Toshiko corrected.

"You didn't have to come to Miss Lowes office." Owen fired back at her and the group could quickly tell what this would turn into. Miss Lowes was the schools head teacher and whatever Owen had done it couldn't have been good.

"You didn't have to text me a massive text on what to tell her."

"Well you didn't have to read it all, did you!"

"You told me to read it all." Toshiko replied before getting to her feet, "I'm going to the library, don't follow me." The last part of her comment was addressed to Owen mainly and Ianto couldn't help, but be reminded of the conversation that he had had with her this morning in maths about her and Owen being a _'couple._'

Jack couldn't not be interested, "What did you ask her to read out?" He asked, ideas already swimming around in his head about the possibilities of what the text could have said.

"I'll text it to you." He replied, "I feel bad now."

"What actually happened though?" Ianto asked, "Between the two of you, you never really said."

"Basically I got into a fight with Tom Bennett." Owen explained. Tom Bennett was a very rough and tough guy, who took part in a range of sport activities and hated Owen ever since an incident that had taken place regarding his girlfriend.

They always tried to keep the two out of each other's way, but when they did clash it didn't result in the best of outcomes.

"So what happened to Tosh?" Gwen asked, worried about her friend."

"It was partly the text that I sent her and partly me and Tom having another fight in Miss Lowes office."

"Over what?" Rhys asked, "Who started it or the never forgotten girlfriend fiasco?"

"Over all of those and the text that I sent Tosh." Owen replied before adding, "Basically we both have detention for the next two days starting tomorrow."

"Well that's not too bad," Gwen told him, "You could have been given worse."

"Did I mention that that includes Toshiko as well." The whole group fell silent. As the end of lunch was nearing, Jack pulled Ianto to one side, so that they could talk privately for a moment.

"What is it?" Ianto asked as they walked away.

"I want to explain to you what I was trying to this morning," Jack explained. Ianto nodded to try and get the elder to keep going, "I shouldn't be way to long. I'm going up to Scotland with my Mum for the week. She's having me brought back down on Saturday, so I'll still come to Rhys's birthday party, but I won't be here for the next few days."

"Your Mum's taking you up to Scotland with her?" Jack nodded, "I thought she said that she didn't want to do that to you, because of her and your Dad's job and everything?"

"Yeah, but this is serious, Ianto and I want to go. She gave me a choice and I chose to go for the short time. I'll explain why when I return okay?" Jack asked, not sure that Ianto fully understood why he had chosen to go to Scotland with his Mum, when he had told the younger so many times that his parents didn't want him up there.

"Okay, just be careful, yeah."

"Don't worry Ianto, this is me we're talking about I'm always careful." Ianto's reply was a slight tilt of his head as if thinking that Jack's comment held barely any truth.

"I still don't get it though. You've always told me that they didn't want you up there, because they had a job that could endanger you if you got involved."

"They do, but this isn't exactly related to their job." After that, Ianto had nothing to say on the matter and so they headed off to French.

* * *

Owen sat in Russian, regretting not only taking it, but annoying Toshiko as she was now refusing to help him when he needed it, which seemed to be - unfortunately for him – most of the time during that hour. Gwen tried to help him, however she wasn't anywhere near as good as Tosh and the pair of them seemed to get nowhere all lesson.

Tosh on the other hand, finished all of her work and started to work on other homework that had been set in maths and science. At the end of the day she didn't wait for any of them and just walked off. Owen hoped that she would be in a slightly better mood tomorrow and not only for his benefit.

Owen met up with Ianto after school and the pair of them walked home at a slower pace than either of them usually would.

"So what did Jack have to say?" Owen asked, too intrigued to stop himself. When he had met Jack this morning, he had been on the phone to his Mum and that had immediately caught Owen's interest.

"He's going to Scotland with his Mum for a few days, but he says he'll be back for Rhys's birthday party on Saturday." Ianto replied. Owen handed quite been expecting that one.

"Okay well we can manage without him." He replied before going to turn off to the left, "Bye Ianto." Owen turned and walked away as Ianto continued straight ahead.

Ianto felt safer walking part way with someone or just generally walking around in day light as it made it harder for anyone to follow him. So why did he feel like someone still was?

* * *

Jack had been picked up from school by his Mum, who then proceeded to drive them out of Cardiff and towards Scotland.

"So how was your day then, Son?" She asked and Jack realised how much he had missed coming home to someone like that.

"It was good thank you, Mum," He paused, "I was thinking when you next come down could I invite my friends over for tea, so that you could meet them? You haven't met any of them and I would quite like it if you and Dad did."

"I'm sure we can arrange that." She replied, her smile falling slightly at the mention of his Dad and Jack knew why, but he was forcing himself to look on the brighter and more hopeful side of things. They were both silent for a moment.

"Did you find Gray yet?" Jack asked after finally finding the courage from somewhere. Gray was Jack's younger brother, who had gone to Scotland with his parents as he was too young really to leave alone and then one night he had just disappeared.

"No we haven't yet, but we're still looking." Jack sighed, "You know we won't give up on him that easily, Jack. We didn't bring you up to believe that giving up on someone was the right thing to do. Sometimes you need to have some patience. People tell, do or forgive things in their own time."

She was right of course and Jack knew that no matter how many times he heard that from his Mother, it never got boring. As he looked out of the window he thought of Ianto and how he was always obviously hiding something.

The one meeting that Jack had had with the younger's Dad wasn't helping and nor was the fake Aunt thing that his Dad had told the hospital to get them to take Ianto home. Jack decided to mention that to his Mum at some point, however he would make sure not to mention any names. This time it was his Mother who broke the silence that fell between them.

"Did you tell anyone why you were really coming up here with me?"

"No," Jack replied, "Because there may not be a need to." He heard his Mother sigh slightly, but he couldn't care that he was maybe being a bit too optimistic, as he just needed to believe that there was still some possible miracles out there.

* * *

Ianto had finished his maths homework and was now almost completely bored. It had taken him longer than usual to do the simple sheet as he kept thinking about the letter. Every time that he thought about it, he would pull the envelope out of his bag and stare at it for a few minutes before putting it away again.

Ianto had always been aware of his family's politics, even from a young age and f he could avoid it, then he would no matter what it was he had to do. Although it had meant that he had to distance himself from the rest of them somewhat slightly, he felt better knowing that he was unlikely to be dragged into things.

However, one that he couldn't get out of was his Uncle's hatred for the guy that his sister was going to marry. Rhiannon had always complained to him about their Uncle's way of judging him before he really even got to know him, but then his Uncle had done the exact same thing, but obviously looking at a different point.

Despite that, his Uncle had still attended the wedding and brought the pair of them the biggest present that was there, which had said to Ianto that the man maybe didn't hate the to be Nephew in Law as much as he had stated in the past.

Although that hadn't helped when the car accident happened. Since both families were aware of the relationship between his Uncle and Rhiannon's husband he had been blamed for it and without any proof he had been sentence to twenty years and possible life if more evidence was brought forward to prove that it was defiantly him.

Ianto sighed and went downstairs to get a drink. His Dad ignored him still like he had since Sunday and Ianto watched him carefully out of the corner of his eye while he looked through all of the post that he never usually looked through before walking back into the lounge.

After a minute the man returned to the hall with more paper work before throwing it all to the floor, grabbing the car keys and walking out of the door. Ianto, curiosity now set into motion made his way into the hall and once he had heard the car drive off, made his way into the living room to find paper almost everywhere.

He looked at a few of the documents – which were only old gas and electricity bills before his eyes caught a symbol that he recognised easily. Ianto picked up the sheet of paper and scanned his eyes over it before picking up one of the typed up letters that was beside it.

The letters were written by his Dad and sent to Ian and Ian had sent back to him. After reading a few of them Ianto placed them back down as close to where they had been as he could get before making his way back upstairs to sit on his bed.

He pulled out the letter and looked at it for a moment before flipping it over, deciding that it was finally time to open it.

* * *

Okay I will update Friday or Saturday, hopefully my laptop should be fixed soon. Thank you for reading, reviewing, favouriting and alerting and I will update Four Senses either tonight or tomorrow night.


	13. Chapter 13

Sorry this is late, however I do have my laptop back now, so my updates should return to normal. I hope you like this chapter and that it answers a few questions that MissingMommy asked about what Jack's parents did for a living and why his Mum turned up at his house as well as some Owen and Ianto friendship for Torchwood Cardiff.

* * *

Jack didn't like travelling to Scotland by car as a lot of the journey made him feel exhausted and slightly sick. His Mum was probably used to the journey by now or she had just gotten better at hiding it, because Jack knew that she got travel sick as well.

It had been the same story with Gray, his Dad was the only one that wasn't affected by whatever method of travel that he used.

By the time that they actually got to the house where his parents lived, Jack was already missing Cardiff and he had only been gone for just over eight hours.

It was half eleven when they parked the car outside of the house - which bore strangely similar outlook to their house in Cardiff - and made their way indoors.

Jack found it strange to look around the house that looked so much like his own and know that he wasn't in Cardiff. His Mum showed him up the stairs and to a room on his right. When Jack walked in, it became obvious to him that this was the spare room that they kept in case they had guests.

He put his bags down and didn't even bother to unpack them, since he wouldn't be staying for too long and he really couldn't be bothered to do so right now. Jack got ready for bed as quickly as he could before climbing in and falling asleep in just seconds after shutting his eyes.

* * *

Ianto was more than annoyed with himself at this moment in time. When he and undone half of the envelopes seal, he had thrown the letter back into his bag and not bothered to continue opening it. Being too nervous to do so at this point in time, afraid of what the letter may say.

It got to ten minutes past midnight and Ianto was still awake, desperate to reach out and grab the letter to rip it open, but also do the opposite and get rid of it.

Before he had considered that maybe they had addressed it to the wrong person, but after seeing all of the letters that his Dad had, Ianto knew that it had been deliberately addressed to him.

He wished that Jack had been here now to help him with the decision of whether to open it or not, however he was also aware that he would probably never told Jack, or anyone else for that matter. In the end, Ianto just decided to get some sleep.

* * *

Owen had gotten up early this morning, not really for any particular reason, but once he was awake he couldn't fall back asleep. Thus his decision to walk round to Tosh and Ianto's had been made.

Walking along the roads at this time of morning gave Owen time to think as there were barely any cars and barely any noise at all to distract him. It seemed slightly strange to be walking towards the opposite direction than what he usually walked in.

He continued going straight passed Ianto's and checked the time as he arrived outside of Tosh's. Eight o clock exactly, that meant that it wasn't too early for him to knock on the door. It was Tosh who answered the door before leaning against the door frame to wait for him to say something.

"Morning." Owen said lamely, mentally slapping himself for being so stupid to just say that and that alone, knowing inside his head that he should have said more.

"I'll see you later." Tosh told him as she slammed the door shut. Owen sighed and turned around, deciding that walking back to his would take up the time he headed off in that direction. He wondered as he came to walk past Ianto's house, if the younger was up and ready to go to school then maybe he could bring Ianto with him for company.

Owen pulled his phone out and called Ianto, placing the phone to his ear as it rang. Ianto picked it up a few rings later, "Hello Ianto. Good morning, how are you?"

* * *

Ianto had woken up at half seven and got dressed as quickly as he could before going downstairs and having a biscuit for breakfast. He had wanted to eat something more, however he didn't quite think that he could stomach it without throwing it back up again. His mobile had rung from his blazer pocket and Ianto had pulled it out and looked at the caller ID.

Owen. The lit up screen read as it offered him the choice of whether to accept or reject the call. Ianto sighed and chose to accept it. The moment that he had, he lifted the phone to his ear to suddenly hear Owen's voice asking him how he was.

"I'm alright Owen, now what do you want?" He asked as he leaned against the counter top to help himself to keep his balance. The tone of Owen's voice made it obvious that he wanted something, even though Owen always thought that he covered it well.

"What makes you think that?" The other asked.

"I can hear it in the tone of your voice and I know everything," Ianto replied hearing Owen sigh a moment later and maybe roll his eyes at the same time, "Where are you anyway Owen?" The young Welsh boy asked a second later, unsure as to whether he was at his house or not, although he guessed that Owen wasn't at his house.

"I'm right outside your front door, well actually I'm a little way down the drive, but it's the same equivalent really."

"Whoa that was a big word for you Owen, are you sure you know what it means?" Ianto asked, slightly shocked that Owen had used a word that was not only one that no one thought he knew, but also a maths word.

"Of course I do, if something's equivalent of another thing then they are the same, I do pay some attention in maths Ianto and I'm not a stupid as everyone else seems to think." Owen replied with an annoyed tone and an exasperated sigh to follow.

"I wasn't suggesting that Owen."

"Yeah just get yourself out here Ianto, I could die any time soon you know." Ianto rolled his eyes and put his phone back into his pocket ad Owen ended the call before making his way to the front door.

* * *

Owen ended the call and slipped his phone into his jackets pocket. He waited outside for a few minutes before a man walked up the drive. Having met Ianto's Dad in the past – well a few days ago really – he knew that the man wasn't him as he would recognise him.

Also there was a hire car in the drive way, which Owen presumed was his Dad's as well.

The man stopped when he draw level with Owen and looked at him curiously, his eyes scanning Owen up and down carefully before he spoke to him.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Owen, Ianto's friend, we walk to school together."

"This early in the morning?" He asked.

"No I just needed to speak to him about something." The man looked disapprovingly at Owen, however he continued walking up the drive. He didn't need to ring the bell as Ianto opened the door at the same time.

Owen noted how the pair stared at each other for a moment, before Ianto stepped out of the doorway, leaving room for the other to step inside. The other man did without even a word, just one simple glare that obviously meant something to Ianto.

"Who was that?" Owen asked as Ianto got closer to him, so that he didn't have to shout.

"A friend of my Dad's, Ian I don't think you've ever met him." Ianto replied.

"No I haven't. I've met your Dad though." Owen said as he began to walk off. Ianto opened his mouth to say something, however never managed to finish the first word of it as he moved to try and catch up with Owen.

"So what did you want?" Ianto asked changing the subject of the conversation as he and Owen made the way down the street towards where Ianto and Tosh usually met Gwen and Rhys.

"First I need you to text Tosh and ask her to meet us here and second I need help."

"Help on?" Ianto asked, frowning slightly with confusion.

"You know on me and Tosh."

"You mean help on your relationship with Tosh that you want to have, but don't have?" Ianto asked to try and clear things up in his mind.

"Yeah that."

"Okay go on then."

"What do I do now?" Owen asked, "I got her in trouble. I went round hers to apologise this morning and when she opened the door instead of saying my massive apology that I'd rehearsed in my head I just said a casual _'morning', _so she shut the door in my face and said that she'd she me later."

"You know what Tosh's like though. When something annoys her she either bottles up her feelings and says that she's fine or just becomes a bit annoyed with people for a little while, but either way you know that she'll forgive you Owen." Ianto said as he and Owen came to a stop at the corner to wait for Gwen, Rhys and Tosh.

As Ianto pulled out his mobile Owen sighed and began to speak as Ianto texted Tosh, "I suppose, it's just difficult."

"Isn't everything?" Ianto asked as he sent the text and slipped his mobile back into his pocket. The pair stood in silence until the others arrived, but Owen couldn't help, but think about how true Ianto's last statement had been.

* * *

Jack hadn't woken up until eleven, but when he did he was starving. It felt strange walking down the stairs, knowing where he was, the time and the fact that he didn't have to be at school. When he walked into the kitchen he found his Mum busy cooking pancakes.

"Morning Son, did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, um what time is it exactly?" He asked.

"Just gone half eleven. I rang the hospital and explained to them that you would be coming with me and told them an approximation of the time that we'll be there."

"Okay," Jack replied before deciding that he should probably say something more to start a conversation with his Mum, "God I love pancakes. I haven't had them since you left, well I had the ones from the shops, but they aren't as good as yours."

And that comment started one of many on food.

* * *

After Spanish for Ianto; German for Tosh and Owen; Russian for Rhys and French for Gwen, the group moved into their second lesson of the day.

With Jack gone, Ianto had attended his drama lesson with Gwen anyway, even if it did result in him being sat at the sides doing nothing, it was better than spending an hour on his own. He watched the group that Gwen was in mostly as they practised.

They were meant to be doing a stylised piece of drama and Gwen seemed to be the only one that had a problem with the group's idea, although Ianto could see why she didn't like it and had to agree that he didn't either. For what they had chosen to do was far from the actual meaning of stylised.

As boring as watching was, Ianto actually decided that he may like to watch the final versions of these and maybe see if Jack could come and watch them as well.

When it came round to break he left with Gwen to go and find Owen, Tosh and Rhys. The pair of them both knew where Owen and Rhys were, however only Ianto was aware of where to find Tosh.

Toshiko left IT and quickly ran into Tosh and Gwen before the three of them moved over to art to find Owen and Rhys. Rhys was very excited for Saturday (and Sunday of course since that was his actual birthday,) while Owen was excited for the party. Tosh on the other hand wasn't looking as forward to it.

Ianto wasn't sure whether he could even go or not yet.

At break time – although he knew it would probably be seriously damaging his health – Ianto didn't eat anything once again. Tosh and Owen proceeded to have another argument before Owen decided it was time to tell Tosh what he thought of her.

"Look Tosh you are the smartest, erroneous, fallacious person that I could ever have the amazing pleasure to know and you are also a completely ad-" Owen was cut off as Toshiko stood up and grabbed her stuff. Ianto was looking at him with slight disbelief and Gwen sighed before getting up to follow her. Rhys did the same, following his girlfriend as she ran after Tosh.

Owen turned to Ianto, the only one who hadn't run off, to ask what it was that he did wrong, "What did I do now, I was complimenting her?"

"Yeah I think it was your choice of words to use in those compliments."

"I was trying to impress her I looked up long words that people wouldn't expect me to know and everything."

"Where did you look them up?" Ianto asked, "On the internet?" Owen nodded in reply. Ianto sighed and Owen looked at him slightly quizzically before Ianto spoke again to explain the problems.

"Firstly erroneous means that you believe that someone's beliefs, opinions or methods of doing something are incorrect or wrong or sometimes only partly correct depending on your own and fallacious means that if an argument or reason is fallacious it is wrong, because it is based on a fallacy."

"Okay one question first, what's fallacy mean?"

"Fallacy is an idea which is believed to be true by people, but is in fact false, because it's based on incorrect information or reasoning." Owen sighed and put his hands to his head before looking at Ianto again.

"Not the best choice of words then."

"No, sorry Owen." Ianto replied.

"I completely messed up I mean I was going all her adorable and honorificabilitundinitatibus, whatever that means."

"May have been better to start with those to."

"Why what's the final one mean?"

"I won't bore you, but basically it means that you consider someone or something to be honourable."

"Yeah should have started with those." Owen spent the rest of break time sulking until he had to go to English.

Owen sat next to Ianto in English as he assumed that he wouldn't be very welcome over with Tosh for now. Mr Redford wrote the work on the board for them all before explaining to them what they were going to be doing while he handed out dictionaries between pairs. Owen sighed very loudly – more so than needed - and quite melodramatically. Mr Redford caught that.

"Is there something wrong, Owen?" He asked, "I may not be facing you, but I can still hear you."

"I don't need to do this lesson, I just had one from Ianto." He replied referring to what Ianto had told him at break. He didn't notice the looks that he was receiving from Gwen, Rhys and Tosh, but Ianto did. The rest of the class at least, thought that Owen's comment was funny and deserved a chorus of laughs.

And it was in moments like these that Ianto wished for Jack to be here to solve everything between all of them.

* * *

David Jones sat on one of the chairs in his living room while Ian sat across from him. His son Ianto was at school at this moment in time which is why it was a good time to talk. It seemed strange to him that the only mail he had received lately was bills and taxes.

"I wouldn't worry." Ian told him.

"I'm telling you that he knows!" David shouted back before making his way up the stairs to Ianto's room with Ian following. He unturned everything, turning the tidy room into a mess that looked like an elephant had just stormed through it.

But yet David Jones still found nothing to show that Ianto knew anything.

He stormed back downstairs and left a quick note for Ianto before leaving the house with the car keys. David Jones needed a break in Aberystwyth.

* * *

Jack walked through the hospital corridors and felt himself being strangely pulled in the other direction. He couldn't help, but be reminded of when Ianto had been in hospital. However this time it was his own Dad.

His Mum almost broke down as she entered the room, but managed to hold it together.

"He was shot while we were chasing a criminal who had been disguised as part of a travelling show," She told him, "He pushed me out of the way."

"And the black eye, the few cuts and bruises?" Jack asked curiously as he looked his Dad over, catching the bruises on his arms, cuts on his face and the black space around his eye, "How did he get those?"

"A fight in a pub the day before. He found someone who was connected to Gray's disappearance." She started, "He wouldn't tell him anything, so they just started fighting. I wasn't with him, Brenda and Greg were."

"Did they catch him, lock him up you know until he decided to say something." Jack was suddenly excited by this thought, "We could find him, get him back, after all this time-"

"Jack we can't." Those words from his own Mother were like nails being dragged over a pain of glass.

"Why can't we? He's your son, my brother and you are seriously telling me that you are just going to give up on him? You just can't do that it's not right, it's not ethical to us abandon your own son, it's not fair."

"Jack calm down and please let me finish."

"Then finish telling me, don't keep stalling."

"We couldn't arrest him, because he killed himself, Jack. At the back of the pub. He ran outside and drove a knife into his chest right by where his heart is."

"How do you know that, you said that you weren't there!"

"I can still be told about things Jack, you don't always have to see them." Jack moved to sit on one of the chairs by his Dad's bedside.

"I'm staying here." He said simply, his rage was finally gone, left him like the power leaves a light bulb.

"I'll call Greg and Brenda, see if either of them can come in tomorrow to see you and explain what happened to you since they saw it. If I go into work then Ianthe won't be on her own in case we need to go out and catch something."

"Yeah, whatever." Jack replied relatively harshly. He heard the door shut behind his Mother as she left and suddenly wished that he hadn't lost his temper so much. He took his Dad's hand in his own and sighed, wondering what the man would think of his behaviour and attitude that he just had towards his own Mother.

It was too late for him to say sorry to her now and Jack would have beaten himself up had he not been in a hospital.

He wondered whether his Dad would like to meet Ianto and also how his Dad would stand with him having a relationship with Ianto. So he started talking, telling his Dad all about Ianto from the very beginning, hoping that the man could hear him.

While at the same time he wondered who the heck the people his Mum had mentioned were and what they had to do with this.

* * *

Ianto had enjoyed his music lesson as he usually did before he went to lunch. He met up with Gwen and Rhys, who had come from RE and History. Owen and Tosh had been in Geography and Technology, but had agreed to meet them later since they had detention.

Although Ianto was now sure that neither of them would speak to each other in a little while all because of one little miss understanding, however he guessed that for Toshiko it was quite a shock to hear that coming from the person that she loved, even though he hadn't meant it.

Ianto also wondered how Jack was as he waited for the older to text him. When Owen and Tosh came out of detention they went separate ways. Tosh headed towards the library and Owen came to sit with Ianto.

"Another argument?" Ianto asked having seen the pair of them walking towards them with some very angry looking talking.

"Yeah, does she hate me?"

"No Owen she doesn't."

"How do you know that?" Ianto didn't answer that one, because he didn't have an answer for it. At least not until he'd spoken to Tosh about it.

Gwen and Rhys disappeared to find Tosh, especially since they all had a free lesson. Ianto went to RE and Owen went to History before the pair of them met up again at the end of the day to walk home.

Owen still seemed pretty depressed and Ianto wasn't feeling much better, however the lack of conversation was killing him, so he had to start one up himself.

"How was History then?"

"Terrible we have homework to do a project on our family tree to see what sort of relations we have in our family." Owen paused for a second before he continued, "My Mum won't help me with it and I know nothing about my family."

"Same here." Ianto replied.

"Well you'll probably get the same thing set for a homework, so I start doing your research Ianto Jones."

"Remind me to never ask you to be my moral support in anything." Ianto told him, "Because you are terrible at it." That got a small laugh from Owen.

When Ianto returned home he found the place in a complete mess. The letters that had been all over the living room were still scrawled out everywhere and on the table in the dining room there was a note from his Dad.

The note said that he had needed a break and wouldn't be back until Sunday evening which for Ianto worked absolutely fine as it meant that he could at least got to Rhys's party on Saturday. The next thing that he thought of was the letter.

He made his way upstairs, however he was more than shocked when he got there to find the room trashed, although he knew that he had been expected it a few days ago. Ianto sat down onto the bed and pulled the letter out of his school bag – still thanking himself that he had brought it to school with him – as he held the letter in his hands.

He turned to over and lifted the seal, ripping the envelope open and pulling out the white paper that had formed the letter inside of it.

* * *

Okay I will update Four Senses tomorrow, sorry it will be late for that one. But anyway I hope you liked this chapter and thank you for reviewing, favouriting and alerting.


	14. Chapter 14

Sorry it's a day late, I will try to be better at getting this up on time for the next chapter and I will also make sure that I definitely update Four Senses tomorrow.

* * *

Staying at the hospital overnight may not have been Jack's best idea ever. Not only had he ended up being extremely bored, but extremely lonely having already told his unconscious Dad everything that he knew about Ianto by half past eleven in the evening.

He was picked up by his mum at about half nine and she drove him to the location where she worked.

His Mum parked the car and led him inside of the building. They walked through a basic office before heading down a set of stairs that were behind it. Suddenly Jack realised that this part of the base had to be underground.

When they walked in through the door down at the bottom of the stairs, Jack was treated by lights, computers and noise.

Sat at one of the computers was a girl with brown, tied back hair while wearing a bright pink top; black trousers and trainers.

And at the desk next to her was a guy with a hair colour that was bordering on black; a dark blue top; a lab coat over it; some sand coloured trousers and trainers.

His Mum walked up towards them and Jack followed behind waiting for someone to speak. It was his Mum who spoke first turning to face her son, "Jack meet Greg Thompson, doctor, scientist and wonderful biologist." She told him as she pointed to the guy, who gave him a small smile and a wave of his pen.

Then she turned to face the woman, "Brenda Stewart, technological genius, hacker, tracker and mastermind." Pulling herself away from the computer screen she gave him a proper wave and a big smile.

As she did this another person entered the room. She was about twenty four; five foot ten; brown hair and greeny, blue coloured eyes. She held a try with four cups on it and made her way over to the man that Jack know knew as Greg first.

"Ah yes, coffee at last, I'm dying here." He said as he took one of the cups from her before she made her way over to Brenda, who also took a cup, however her answer was in the form of words.

"Thanks." Brenda took a sip before returning to her work, her fingers moving quickly across the keyboard. The person that Jack didn't have a name for to match to a face yet moved over to them and handed them both a cup of coffee, emptying the tray, before his Mum spoke again.

"And this is Ianthe Lloyd, brilliant at making coffee and getting us places on time, quickly and safely," she took a sip of her coffee and turned to face her son, "Now you know the team that works for me and you're Dad."

That comment managed to turn heads. Jack realised they probably hadn't known that he was her son when she brought him down, maybe they had thought that he was a new team member. The only one who didn't look shocked was Ianthe.

"Now Brenda, Greg, I need the pair of you to take Jack and explain to him what happened to his Dad when you went to the pub."

"Oh what explain about the guy who killed himself?" Greg asked, although he didn't wait for an answer before adding the next part to his sentence, "I just put his body in the morgue this morning."

"Well if Jack wants to see it them I'm sure that one of you can take him down there later." replied, although she didn't look best eased at the thought that her son might want to do that.

"Didn't you explain it to him?" Brenda asked slightly confused that his Mother may not have told his son.

"Yes, but he didn't believe me, because I wasn't there when it happened." Jack looked slightly sheepish as his Mother said that, but he didn't make any move to interrupt the conversation.

"You might want to take a look at this." Ianthe said as she rendered the room. Jack hadn't even notice her departure and from the look on Greg's face, he hadn't either. Ianthe made her way over to Jack's Mother and handed her as set of papers.

"Another murder, same guy, eighth one this week." Ianthe informed them all having already read the papers.

"Eighth?" Jack asked shocked before he asked, "When are you counting the beginning of the week from?"

"From Monday." Ianthe replied as she started to pick up Brenda and Greg's coats.

"This is the fourth day of this week then, so that means that he killed seven people in the past three days." Jack was now wondering why his parents hadn't told him that this was the sort of stuff that they actually did.

"Well then we better go look," as she was passed a set of car keys by Ianthe, who also passed Brenda and Greg their coats, "You too come with me, Ianthe stay here and don't let Jack out of your sight, when we get back Jack, Brenda and Greg can fill you in." And as simply as that, the three of them were gone.

* * *

Ianto had been distant from the others for quite a bit of the day, all because of the stupid letter that left him having no idea what to do or not. The way he saw it, he only had a few possible options open to him.

He was sat in English before everyone else as he had been let out of Spanish early and Mr Redford had told him to go in and sit down. The room had been empty as no one has a lesson in their for first lesson of the Thursday morning.

Once again Owen came and sat down next to him, avoiding Toshiko as much as he could, although Ianto was convinced that they would be friends again soon - or at least they hopefully would be.

This morning had seen Owen do the same thing that he had done yesterday, walking down to Ianto's and waiting with him for Tosh, Gwen and Rhys to turn up.

That lesson they watched the first part of the mice and men film and then read the next part of the book, stopping to write down a description of the new ranch. Ianto ended up helping Owen with most of his as he couldn't be bothered to do it on his own.

Break time soon became one of the most boring that Ianto had ever had and he just couldn't wait for Jack to get back or for the boring school week to end.

* * *

A beeping noise came from Jack's jacket pocket and he fished out his phone to see its battery sign flashing red. He looked around and his eyes finally set on Ianthe who was just making her way up the stairs.

"Ianthe," She raised her head, "Do you have a phone charger that I could borrow?" He asked hoping that she had, because otherwise he wouldn't be able to text Ianto later.

"What phone do you have?"

"IPhone four." Jack replied simply as he stood up to follow Ianthe in the direction that she was heading – towards his Mum and Dad's office. Once inside she placed the file that she had been carrying on the desk and moved to one of the numerous filing cabinets.

After she had picked out numerous different black and white leads before pulling out one that fitted the right description for Jack's phone before she turned back round to face him and handed him the charger.

"Thanks. Why do you seem to have so many?"

"They aren't mine," Ianthe started, "We have to keep them in case our own phones ever need charging or the phone of someone that we catch that way we can still use whatever evidence could be on the phone, even if it had originally run out of battery."

"Clever." Jack replied as she made her way past him. Having found it quiet without anyone to talk to, Jack was glad was she remained up here using one of the computers, so he made his way over to where she was stood.

"You're Welsh right?" He asked, "I recognise the accent, because I live in Cardiff and some of my friends are Welsh too."

"Yeah I am and I already knew that," Jack's face must have showed his confusion as Ianthe carried on, "Your Mum and Dad told us."

"Why come to Scotland then? I mean wouldn't you have preferred a job in Cardiff?"

"My Mum moved to Scotland when I was sixteen and I just ended up moving up here with her. But I don't mind, I like my job. It allows us to help keep people safe." She gave him a light smile before turning back to the computer screen and began typing again.

"Why did my Mum not tell me what she actually did?" Jack asked wondering whether Ianthe knew or not.

"What did she tell you that she did?"

"She said that she and Dad worked in a Harkness family business that had been going since eighteen seventy nine."

"Well this is. Your family have run it for ages, starting here in Scotland." She informed him and Jack wondered why he couldn't have been told when Ianthe could.

"Anything else you can tell me?" He asked as he sat down with a tone that he hoped had come across with more interest than annoyance laced in it. Ianthe sat down as well turning to Brenda's laptop and placing it in front of Jack before bringing up a screen with a spinning logo on and what looked to be a very good data bank.

"There were originally five of them. Starting here with a second in London, third in Cardiff, Fourth in Delhi, India and the fifth – well the fifth isn't really known – it's missing, but your parents always say that they will find it somewhere on day."

Jack nodded for her to continue, so she did.

"They were numbered for simplicity. You have one which is London, two which is us, three which is Cardiff, four which is missing and five which is India. The one in India was closed in nineteen twenty four." Ianthe pressed a few keys before a picture of the location appeared.

When she presses a few more the image changed to the one in Scotland before pressing a few more which brought up a picture of a very recognisable location for Jack. A tall, modern skyscraper took up most of the picture with the sky and the ground taking up the rest. There were a few people on the ground of the picture, but not one of them went near the building.

"You recognise it?"

"Yeah it was in the news wasn't it? About three years ago, I'm sure they had a story about something to do with that building being destroyed."

"It was completely destroyed, but it took a lot of damage," Another click and a different image was displayed and in this one the modern building was a lot harder to notice and for anyone's guess it could have been completely old, "So that was the end of the one in London."

"What about Cardiff?" Jack looked at the laptop's screen (which was now back on the logo screensaver as Ianthe had closed the pictures.) Jack put a finger on the trap pad and moved the mouse to the same thing that he had seen her click before hand and did the same. Inside the folder gave him the choice of the five places.

He clicked on the Cardiff branch and opened the file. He was surprised to see that it still existed to the present day. Jack looked up at her before he spoke.

"Does anyone run it anymore, because according to this it still exists?" Jack asked before turning his head back to face the Laptop screen before realising that he recognised the location that it was apparently located at.

The Roald Dahl Plass. Jack had walked past there with Owen, Tosh, Ianto, Gwen and Rhys before, however apart from the Millennium centre he didn't really see where it could be unless it was underground like this one.

"No it's not actually run by anyone and it doesn't really do anything anymore." She replied while writing something down into the file that she had been holding off of a file that was displayed on one of the main computer screens.

"Why not?" Jack asked

"After the events that happened in London and all of the trouble that it caused as well as all of the public interest, they just made the decision that it was time to shut it down and just have Scotland as the only one left since no one really knew anything about this one."

"But is the actual structure still there? You know the base and the actual workspace like you have here?"

"I believe so, I don't think they ever destroyed the actual thing as that would have attracted too much more attention than just simply shutting it down, however I believe that we still own the building that originally fronted it." Ianthe stood up with the folder and shut down the laptop before she stood up.

"What do you know about someone called Gray Harkness, Ianthe?"

"The name is overly familiar to me. He's your younger brother is that right?"

"Yeah he is," She went to leave, "Do you ever get the feeling that someone knows something important, but chooses not to tell you?"

"Yes, why do you ask?"

"Because I think my Mum's hiding something to do with Gray from me."

"I wouldn't know if she was or wasn't," Ianthe replied, "Now I was going to double check on Cardiff for you, I might as well look at Gray as well," and that time she actually did walk away.

Jack sighed at being left alone again, but it didn't last for too long as Ianthe spoke again and Jack found that she hadn't even left.

"Are you coming with me or not?" Jack jumped up and made his way over to where she was stood before following her down through a series of tunnels and stairs which eventually lead to an opening which made its way into a very big space full of more filing cabinets. Ianthe moved over to a section marked A and opened the draw on the bottom and slipped the file in to the AP section of the filling.

She stood up and turned to him before hinting for him to follow her further down. She only stopped when she reached the section marked H. She looked between a few of the cabinets before opening one and pulling out a different file from the Ha section.

Ianthe looked at him with a slight sadness, she took a deep sigh and bit her lip before extending her arm and held out the folder for him to take if he wanted to. Something about the way she was acting now told Jack that she shouldn't be doing this.

"You can take it if you want to. I can copy it no one will ever know that you have it, but you don't have to read. However I completely respect that you will probably want to since he was- well I don't have to tell you what he is to you."

Jack reached out and took the folder, "You won't get in trouble for this?"

"If you don't say anything it will never be brought up." Ianthe told him, "I'm the only one who ever comes down here usually. I mean the others make their way down once in a while, but they never check stuff, that's my job."

Jack opened the folder and recognised instantly the face that was on the file, Ianthe turned away from him and walked off down another one of the pathways, however Jack made no move to follow her as he read over the file.

Gray Harkness, was written at the top of the page along with a ton of other personal information and every detail of how he had disappeared. He read further down the page and found the details of someone that he hadn't heard the name of before. Ianthe chose that moment to return with yet another file in her hand which she handed to him.

Jack looked at her in confusion before she spoke, "Dan Wilshire. He's the guy that killed himself in the pub, the one that your Dad was chasing. It might be helpful."

"How much do you know?" Jack was now even more annoyed at his parents, "How much have they told you? All of you, you, Greg and Brenda? Tell me?" Ianthe bit her lip again and didn't reply or say anything for a moment.

"You really need to improve your manners," Jack thought for a moment that she was going to just walk away and that she wasn't going to say any more than that, but he was soon proved wrong, "Everything. We know everything."

"Do you know anything that I don't?" Ianthe didn't get to answer as her Bluetooth comms unit interrupted with Jack's Mum's voice speaking to her from wherever they were now.

* * *

Ianto and Tosh were sat in maths with five minutes left of the lesson, both of them having already finished the work that was set for them. So Ianto turned to Tosh.

"Can you forgive Owen?"

"Not until he apologizes for what he said."

"Tosh, he's really sorry please just forgive him, he didn't know what the words meant, but he thought he could impress you with them."

"Well he did," Toshiko replied, her tone expressing everything that she felt, "And just when I thought that he actually liked me."

"He does." Ianto insisted trying to push that fact into Tosh's head. Toshiko leaned back in her chair and looked down.

"Well if he does it doesn't make a difference to his actions."

"He's Owen, he'll always be like that."

"I know that and I hate it," Ianto knew what Toshiko meant, "So then why do I keep trying?" She asked. Ianto didn't answer able to tell that her question was intended to be a rhetorical one.

At the end of maths, Ianto's mood hadn't improved at all and on top of that he felt so ill and hungry, but to force himself to eat something would probably just make him sick anyway. He saw Owen on his way to Geography as Tosh left with Gwen to go to their PE lesson.

He sat down in the filling up class room and checked his phone quickly before their teacher came in, only becoming even sadder when he saw that there was no text or missed call from Jack.

Ianto sighed and shoved his bag down onto the floor next to his crutches and leaned his head into his hand and rested his elbow against the table. He watched the board without any real intention of actually paying much attention.

Everything seemed to move past him in such a blur that he was barely aware of it until he heard the bell go and packed away to make his way to the netball courts to meet Owen, Tosh, Gwen and Rhys for lunch.

* * *

Jack was sat in the black SUV with Ianthe who was – as his Mum had told him - driving quickly, but safely unlike how his Dad would drive along these roads and Jack was sure that one day he would drive the exact same way.

"You know you remind me of my friend, Ianto," Jack said trying to create a conversation, "He's Welsh too you know."

"What's he like?" Ianthe asked, although she was obviously focussing on her driving as she asked a question that would allow her (for a minute at least) to do barely any of the talking.

"He's nice and organised and probably one of the best people that I've met and he's always fussing about his coffee-" Ianthe laughed slightly at that, "I really want to get to know him better you know as a bit more of a friend."

"So why are you telling me all of this?" She asked as she turned a corner, "If you feel that way you should talk to him."

"I just can't manage to say any of it, I'm not very good telling people how I feel, I usually mess it up and get a door slammed in my face."

"Then don't say it from the other side of a door, it's never really the best way. Sit down, face to face and then say it."

"But I just feel that there's so much that he doesn't tell me, or anyone for that matter."

"Then encourage him to tell you and don't do what I did."

"Why what did you do?" Jack asked, that last statement having caught his interest. He felt the SUV slow to a stop as Ianthe undid her seatbelt.

"I'll tell you another time." She told him as she swiftly moved out of the car before turning back to face him, "Are you coming with me or staying here? I'd advise that you stay here as you'd be safer, but something tells me that you aren't going to do that."

"Let's see, Mum tells me to stay at the base and you're trying to catch a murderer – I think I'll go for the non-boring, but dangerous option." Ianthe sighed and rolled her eyes as she shut the door. Jack clambered out and shut the passenger door behind him.

The extra weight of the gun that he was carrying in his hand was not usual for him, but yet he found himself finding it relatively simple to keep up with the events without a single faltering step.

They left the SUV outside of the Bishopton Parish Church and made their way down the side of the road. They were just coming up to a big wood when they saw a man run across the road, forcing a car to stop before it ran him over as he ran into the first part of the wood.

That was when they heard Jack's Mothers voice again telling them to go after the guy and that they would be there to help them with the chase soon. So Ianthe and Jack ran into the entrance of the wood and followed the guy.

Jack followed along carefully minding where he stepped, following where Ianthe stepped.

"You know this wasn't how I planned to spend the time that I had in Scotland. I was only here to be visiting my Dad." Jack informed her, his tone a whisper as they made their way along still, quietly chasing the man.

"When are you going back then?" Ianthe asked.

"Saturday morning about six o clock then I'll be back by two o clock, I can sleep of the travel sickness and go to Rhys's birthday party as I promised Ianto," Jack paused and then added, "I still need to text him as well."

"Yeah well it will have to wait, because one we're chasing a murderer and two you forgot to charge your phone earlier." Ianthe reminded him

"What?" Jack asked before fishing round in his pocket to grab his phone before trying to turn it on, only to find the battery completely dead, "Oh that is just-"

He didn't get to finish as something went straight through his arm, he heard a voice (that sounded like his Mother's) shout his name, before something knocked him out.

* * *

Owen had been right and Ianto had been set the same homework that he had to chase family routes. Ianto walked home as quickly as he could manage with the crutches, opened the door and went up to his bedroom.

He pulled out the open letter and decided that it was actually time to make his mind up. The letter was from the prison in Knox Road, Cardiff, CF twenty four zero UG. There was a letter that had been written to him from Richard Booty, the Governor of the prison.

Ianto had already read through both of the letters. The second letter was written to him directly from a certain person. A person who he hadn't expected to see again.

His Uncle.

The letter that had been written to him read:

_Dear Ianto._

_I know that you probably dislike me, because of past events that I (in my knowledge) was not involved in, but according to certain others, I was. I would be in complete understanding if you didn't write back or call the prison or come and visit, but I would like you know that I would love it if you could visit._

_I wouldn't – if I was you – mention this letter to your Father, but if you have to maybe a trusted friend or a girlfriend would be best._

_I hope to see you soon Ianto, also I have a small favour that I would like to ask of you as well. I hope that you are alright and that I will see you._

Ianto didn't quite know whether he wanted to see his Uncle again or not. Although he had never blamed him for Rhiannon and Johnny's death as he knew that it was his Dad who had killed them.

After some serious time considering the matter, Ianto turned to the official letter and looked at the phone number before picking up his mobile and typed it in then pressing call, placing the device to his ear as it started to ring.

* * *

Jack heard beeping as he opened his eyes. He sat up and found Brenda and Greg sat one on either side of him.

"What happened?" He asked as he sat up.

"You got shot in the arm," Greg answered, "Then hit over the head with a gun. Lucky thing that the hospital is just back down the road."

"I want to see my Dad." Jack demanded.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea, because-" Brenda didn't get to finish her sentence.

"I've only been shot in the arm, I can walk down to where he is." Neither of them looked completely sure on it, but in the end they both agreed and took him down to see his Dad.

"Go on then. Mum said you'd tell me what happened."

"Basically we chased the guy out of the pub while he was throwing punches at us and glass e.c.t. and then he just jumped over the bar, ran out the back and the moment we got out there and told him that we were taking him in – he stabbed himself." Brenda told him.

"And then he shot himself in the same place," Greg added, "I tried to save him, but I couldn't Jack there was just too much blood and it was two direct hits to the heart, there wasn't much I could do in a back lane, when all I had was a jacket and a small first aid kit."

Jack sat down next his Dad in one of the chairs from the room that he had pulled over to the bedside. He sat in silence.

"Ianthe gave us this," Brenda handed Jack his mobile, "We charged it for you by the way." Jack took it with a light thanks and began to compose a message to send to Ianto.

"Where is she? And my Mum, where are they both?" He asked not seeing them anywhere.

"They are still chasing the guy." Brenda told him.

"Only good thing is," Greg started, "Ianthe thinks she knows who he is now by an actual name that we can trace."

"So why aren't you?"

"Because you're Mum told us to stay with you!" Brenda shouted, "You weren't even meant to come with us!"

Jack stood up, "He's killed eight people-"

"Nine." Greg interrupted.

"Nine? When did that happen?"

"Ianthe texted it to me." He held up his mobile.

"Okay well that is even worse, he has killed nine people in four days you have to go and bloody catch him!"

"It's not that simple, Jack."

"Well I think that it's easier to catch someone with four against one, rather than two against one." Brenda and Greg shared a look before walking out of the room. Jack sighed and sat back down, taking his Dad's hand.

He fell asleep again about ten minutes later, so he completely missed the spiked line turn to a flat one.

* * *

Okay my next update will be Saturday and I will update Four Senses tomorrow (it would have been earlier, but I left the document on my cousins computer and she went away for the past few days, so I couldn't get it), I'm sorry for being so slow to update that one. Thanks for reading, reviewing, favouriting and alerting.


	15. Chapter 15

Okay chapter fifthteen, longest one yet, I hope you like it.

* * *

Jack looked at the blur that was in front of him. He had lifted his head to beeping and now he was watching as doctors moved about with all of their medical equipment to try and save his Dad's life. In the end, Jack decided that he couldn't take watching this, so he exited the room and waited outside. He wished now to be back in Cardiff with none of this having ever happened.

One of the nurses came over to him a few minutes later and Jack was thinking that he should probably call his Mum and the rest of her team to come back.

"You can see him now if you wish, Sir." She told him with a very kind voice that was almost too sweet for Jack's liking. Her statement shocked him and it wasn't all because of the use of the word Sir at the end of it.

"I can- You mean to tell me that he's still alive?"

"Yes Sir," She replied, "Although things do seem bleak there is a chance that he might pull through, but either way if there is anything that you may need to tell him or let him know about or something that he should or you want him to be aware of then you should tell him now."

Jack looked slightly downhearted at this, so the nurse added a simple, "Just in case."

He headed into the room again - slightly apprehensively, but equally as worried - emotions which faded away when he saw his Dad (who had now been sat up in the bed) move his hand from his side to place it over his chest.

The man's son was at his side in seconds, gripping the hand that had moved like a life line. He wasn't the one to speak first.

"You can let go when you're ready, Son." The weak, but still ever so recognisable voice that Jack had grown to love as a child.

"Dad! You're alright I was so worried."

He gave a light laugh, "Thank you for being worried," He paused, "I meant it though you can let go, Son. Your nails are digging into my hand."

"Oh sorry." Jack replied as he let go of his Dad's hand to see the marks that his nails had made.

"You came all the way up here from Cardiff during the school week to come and see me?"

"You are my Dad of course I did," Jack gave his Dad a hug the best that he could, "Mum mentioned Gray." He told his Dad, deciding not to mention what the file that Ianthe had given him had told him.

"We'll find him, Jack."

"I know you will Dad," He paused for thought, "Shall I ring Mum?"

"No leave it for a minute, it will give me some time to catch up and talk with you while you are on your own." The man replied with a small shake of his head.

"Okay. What do you want to talk about then?"

"Who's Ianto Jones?" Jack was suddenly shocked that his Dad had actually heard him.

* * *

Ianto sat twiddling his phone in between his fingers, not quite believing what he had just done. He also didn't quite believe that he had only been on crutches for a week and five days. Yes four, because it was now about one o clock on Friday morning.

Although he was well aware that he should be sleeping, Ianto just couldn't manage it. He had considered texting Jack so many times, but hadn't done so. He leaned against his bed frame and closed his eyes. He felt so sic that if he had them open it looked like the world around him was spinning in a set of big flashing lights and he couldn't take that.

His mobile phone soon slipped from his hands grip as he slipped from awake to asleep in a matter of seconds after he had closed his eyes.

* * *

Toshiko was sat in bed with her laptop on her lap looking at her face book page or more precisely Owen's face book page. The page had no updates of Owen's on there at all which had majorly surprised Toshiko, since Owen always found time to update his face book and twitter pages even when he really didn't have the time to do that.

Face book and twitter were more important to Owen than his homework and defiantly took the top place on his priority.

At the same time Tosh checked Ianto, Jack, Gwen and Rhys's too to see if any of them had updated him. On Jack's she was looking to see if he had written anything about when he would be coming back.

Eventually she gave up and placed the laptop onto the floor and shut it down. With a sigh she laid down and tried to drift into sleep.

* * *

Owen woke up at three o clock in the morning and cursed the world for waking him up so early, although if he was honest it was probably himself that had woken himself up.

He checked his mobile for the time and was so annoyed that he was up this early. Owen remained lying down and just stared at the ceiling before trying to stay lying down with his eyes shut. Owen didn't know what time it was when he finally fell asleep, but he knew that it had been at least an hour since he woke up.

* * *

Gwen walked around her room eating a slice of toast as she chucked the books that she needed for her school day into her bag. She was becoming excited for Rhys's birthday party which was in one days' time now

She left her house a little later than planned, shouting out a goodbye to her Mum as she made her way down to meet Rhys and then Owen, Tosh and Ianto as well.

* * *

Toshiko walked along the road towards Ianto and knocked on the door when she arrived there. Ianto opened the door a minute later and stepped out, locking it behind him as they made their way along the road. Gwen, Rhys and Owen were all waiting at the usual meeting place.

* * *

Ianto sat alone thinking for a whole hour wishing that the others weren't in technology or RE and were sat with him instead. When it was time for him to go to art, Ianto was in no better a mood than he had been before hand.

Art wasn't at all fun. John sat next to him for the whole of the lesson and although he was nice to him for the duration of the hour, Ianto was sure that it wouldn't last for any amount of time after the lesson was over and it didn't, but Ianto had expected that.

"Where's Jack?"

"Somewhere," Ianto replied, "Why would I know where he was anyway?"

"Because he spends almost every one of his waking moments with you apart from when you can't be together, so of course you know."

"But I don't."

"Alright, let's say that you are telling me the truth and you don't know where he is," John paused, "I will see you on Monday, Ianto Jones." With that John Hart walked away from him.

At break time, Ianto made the best start that he could on his art homework, finding it slightly hard though with only one hand. Ianto was hoping that in two days and two weeks that the doctor's would tell him that he could have his ankle taken out of the cast that it was currently in.

He was lucky apparently – or at least according to Doctor John Smith - he was. They had told him that his broken ankle could be healed within four weeks minimum. Ianto could only hope that that would be what happened.

* * *

"So Ianto is Welsh," Jack nodded at his Dad's final correction recollection of who Ianto was, "And he's your age and you really like him."

Jack nodded, "Yeah I do."

His Dad smiled, "That's good. I've been waiting ages for you to tell me that you found someone who you liked." Jack smiled too before excusing himself from the room.

"Excuse me for a second, I just need to get a coffee." His Dad nodded as he left the room.

Jack made his way down to the hospital's café and grabbed himself a coffee. On his way out he saw a familiar face at the reception area.

"Ianthe!" He called as he made his way over to her, "How is everyone?"

"Your Mum's in a right state, Brenda's bringing her over at the moment they should be hear in a few minutes. The hospital rang us all and explained what had happened." The pair made their way back to the room where Jack's Dad was.

"How's the arm by the way?" Ianthe asked as they walked, "Looked like one of the worst that I'd seen in a while."

"It's pretty sore, but I try not to think about it and then it's a lot better than when I do."

"You do know that you're lucky that he only got your arm." Jack turned to her slightly shocked.

"What do you mean by that?"

"He was aiming for your heart and he doesn't usually slip up Jack that's how he managed to kill ten people in four days."

"Hold on," Jack said as he stopped, Ianthe stopped and turned to face him to listen to what he had to say, "I thought you told me yesterday that he had killed eight people?"

"Yes, but he killed two more yesterday before we managed to catch him." Jack sighed.

"Who did he kill?"

"A young couple, Jenny Shaw and Daniel Torbrook, eighteen and nineteen years old," Jack suddenly felt very downhearted by that news, "But we've got him now. I mean I know that's not really good enough but-" Ianthe stopped speaking as they turned to enter the room where Jack's Dad had been staying.

One of the nurses came over to them at the same time that Ianthe mobile phone beeped. Ianthe reached into her jacket pocket to grab the mobile and Jack spoke to the nurse.

"What happened? What's going on?"

"I'm sorry," The nurse started, but Jack new that she didn't really even have to say any more as he now understood what had happened, however she continued anyway, "He passes away a few minutes ago."

Jack cursed to himself. He had only been gone about five. As Ianthe slipped her phone away she looked at Jack's sad face.

"I'm sorry Jack." Brenda and Jack's Mum chose that as their moment to enter.

"How is everyone?" Jack's Mum asked as she entered the room, not knowing what had just happened, "Greg's got the SUV outside and-"

She stopped speaking when she saw Ianthe and her son's face, but also when she looked straight ahead and saw her husband lying down bed.

"No. He can't be." That's when she broke down and even Jack, Ianthe and Brenda started crying slightly. Ianthe was the first to recover and left the room, using her phone to call Greg about moving Mr Harknesses body to the morgue back at their base.

Greg brought his body to the base later that afternoon around the same time that Jack asked his Mum to take him home.

"No Jack I can't take you home." She told him firmly. Unknown to the pair of them, Brenda, Greg and Ianthe watched their argument from the autopsy area.

"But you could stay for a while or you could come back up, please Mum I've promised Ianto I'll be back by tomorrow for Rhys's birthday party and I never break my promises, especially not the ones that I make to him."

"Well Jack sometimes you have to break promises, like when people die!" His Mum shouted back at him and Jack guessed that she was taking the death of his Father way worse than they had all assumed.

"Please Mum."

"Jack I said no!" She paused, "After your Dad's funeral I will drop you home, but until then you will have to stay here."

Jack raised his voice, "But Mum arranging that could take weeks and I promised-"

"Damn your promises Jack, I've said no!" She shouted back. Jack remained silent for a minute before all hell exploded and he mentioned a few things that he knew that he really shouldn't have said, but at that moment he was just so annoyed that he said every single word of it.

"The same can be said for you!" He shouted, "You promised to tell me everything you knew or found out about Gray."

"I did Jack."

"No you didn't!" Jack paused, "You never told me that you knew who took him!" He missed the way that Ianthe lowered her head, Greg lifted his head to the ceiling and shut his eyes and Brenda walked back down the stairs of the autopsy bay.

"You never told me that that guy who killed himself - what was his name again? Oh yes Dan Wilshire that was his name and who else assisted him? How many other people helped him to take Gray? Who's there leader? Do you know the answer to that one yet, because I most certainly don't even if you do."

Jack paused for breath for a moment, his Mother looked completely shocked at what he knew and how he was speaking to her, tone wise.

"You never told me what you and Dad really did for a job, did you? And what else can I add to the never ending list," Jack turned his back on her for a second before turning back to face his Mother with his new comment, "And you never told me that Gray was dead!"

Silence filled the base for a moment and no one spoke. Brenda reappeared and looked at the scene. Greg opened his eyes and Ianthe raised her head, but yet none of them spoke, leaving that job to Jack and his Mum.

"Jack," The woman started in as soft a tone as she could manage, "I never meant-"

"No you never meant for me to find any of that out did you! Well there's one thing that I can tell you. You never me home to Cardiff right now, because I am so sick of this constant lying that you and Dad had going on."

And with that Jack was gone.

* * *

Ianto was happy in music. They did something slightly different today which involved watching a film about how different types of music ended up being in their world and their lives today. It bored a lot of people, but for Ianto it was a very interesting change.

French came next and Ianto knew that it would be slightly boring without Jack there. Rhys was sat in the classroom waiting for him when he arrived and Ianto sat down beside his friend with a smile. He quickly checked his phone to find that there was still no word from Jack. Rhys looked over his shoulder at the mobile phone screen.

"Has he not texted you yet?"

"No," Ianto replied as he slipped the mobile phone away, so that their teacher didn't see it as she walked into the room, "He promised that he would at least twice a day."

"Hey I'm sure he's just having fun taking a break and sitting out in the sun-" Rhys stopped when he saw the look on Ianto's face, "Sorry that wasn't very helpful was it."

"No it wasn't." Ianto replied as he opened his book and wrote the date in.

"He'll be back tomorrow though."

"Yeah, I hope that he will be." Although with the lack of texts, Ianto wasn't overly sure that the older would be.

* * *

The whole base had remained in silence after Jack left. His Mother retreated to her office and sat at her desk crying. Ianthe brought her coffee and Brenda sat with her in an attempt to keep her company. Greg was busy digging his hands into dead bodies when Ianthe brought him his coffee.

"Thanks." It was – Ianthe was quite sure – the first word spoken since the moment that Jack had left.

"You're welcome." Ianthe turned round to leave just as Greg shouted out something which stopped her from where she was headed.

"I knew it!" Greg chucked the scalpel down and clapped his hands together, "I just knew it!"

"What did you know?"

"A gunshot wound like that to the stomach doesn't usually kill or at least not like that."

Ianthe stepped back down the stairs only know noticing the body of Jack's father, "What happened this time couldn't you wait to do another autopsy?" she said as she came to a holt beside him.

"Yeah, but you know I'm a doctor it's what I do." Greg replied before taking a sip of his coffee and handing Ianthe a glass test tube. Ianthe looked at the red liquid that was in it.

"That bullet went straight into the area between his Cardia and Pyloric Antrum. In that area of the stomach it is made up purely of stomach tissue, no vital organs, nothing that could cause him to die like that, especially not after spending five almost six whole days in a hospital."

"So you think that someone killed him after Jack left the room?" Ianthe asked.

"That's exactly what I am saying. Now are you going to ask me what's in the tube and why I have handed it to you or not?" Ianthe sighed.

"I know what's in it, Greg, but way have you given it to me?" She asked knowing that it would make Greg happy, although she was already aware that the tube was full of blood, the reason that the doctor had given it to her was unknown to her mind.

"Because I need your help and I don't only mean with the archives and whatever else is stored down there."

"So what do you mean then?"

"Well let's see apart from that I need your geography skills, mental maths skills and science skills." Greg paused for a second before he continued speaking, slightly more quieter this time though.

"I think I can not only find who really killed Mr Harkness and who killed Gray." Ianthe looked at him for a minute before she replied.

"What are we waiting for then?"

* * *

Owen was annoyed when he and Ianto left science that afternoon and as the pair made their way out of the school complex all Owen did was complain.

"That's stupid, I think that everyone knows I was right."

"Owen let it go, he's just a person training to be a teacher."

"Yeah and not a good one," Owen paused, "No wonder people are worried about our grades dropping when they give us that rubbish for teachers."

"Look you know all about this topic already Owen - since it is biology - and you can always teach me and Jack this whole unit on your own, so why don't you just think about that and let the other members of our class worry about themselves."

"Yeah I suppose I could, couldn't I." Ianto rolled his eyes, but overall he was just glad that Owen stopped complaining when they started walking home as he was sure that he really couldn't put up with that.

Gwen, Rhys and Toshiko joined them for the walk as well and Ianto - along with Gwen and Rhys - tried to make sure that Tosh and Owen were walking next to each other, hoping to try and repair the damaged relationship.

Sadly it didn't work and Tosh cheered up when Owen turned off from the group to walk down his street to go home. Gwen and Rhys were next to depart from Ianto and Toshiko's company.

"Tosh," Ianto said after a moment. The Japanese girl looked up at him, "Do you think that Jack will come back for tomorrow? For Rhys's party?"

"I think he will Ianto. He promised you that he would be, so he will be." Toshiko replied trying to be as reassuring as she could be, but Ianto could see somewhere on her facial expression that she wasn't overly sure on that last comment herself.

When Ianto and Tosh reached the driveway up to his house they said goodbye and Ianto made his way up the drive and over to the front door. He let himself in and looked at all of the new mail that had been chucked on the floor. There was still no car in the driveway and Ianto knew that his Dad would have a lot of mail to catch up on.

He picked them up, shuffled them into a neat pile and placed them on the telephone table. His eye didn't miss the few that had the gas and electricity company symbol that were among the rest of the letters.

Ianto thought over it for a long time, but eventually decided that it was worth it. He carefully brought his laptop downstairs and ordered pizza (only a small one though as he knew that he couldn't force himself to eat much more than that - and sat on the sofa with the TV on.

He even allow that stupid Come Dine with me program play in the background. Most people that Ianto knew would come home from school and do things like this and he found himself feeling quite happy that he could actually try it now.

He kept his ankle up on the sofa and rested his laptop on his legs, eating pieces of the pizza slices when he felt like eating it. By the end of the evening he had only managed to eat half of it, but he didn't care. Especially since it wasn't his money that he had spent on it, but his Dad's.

A lot of his evening was spent on Facebook talking to Owen, Gwen and Rhys who informed him that they were doing something of a similar Cali err what he was doing right now. Ianto was slightly worried though that Jack hadn't even updated anything that was on his Facebook page or twitter or texted him like he had promised.

Ianto sighed and spent the rest of the evening on his own and even on the Saturday morning when he woke up still in the same position on the sofa, his Dad hadn't returned home over night which still left him alone.

* * *

Brenda had taken Mrs Harkness home long ago with out even questioning or even noticing what Greg and Ianthe were busy working on.

By that time Ianthe had her laptop out and was running numerous different programs on it all at the same time.

"Blood group's registering as an AB negative," Greg said as he looked at the screen. In the test tube that he had first handed to Ianthe had been blood that he had found on Mr Harknesses arm,"I knew it wasn't his from the moment I saw it and now I can be sure that it isn't." He looked to Ianthe, who was sat on the stairs.

"Mr Harkness was an O blood type and his wife is an A. Jack's an O like his father and you can tell him that Ianthe he might like to know."

"Okay if we are looking for someone with an AB negative blood type then they shouldn't be too hard to find as only zero point five percent of the world's entire population is AB negative which is one in every one hundred and sixty seven." Ianthe informed Greg who looked at her slightly shocked.

"How do you know that?"

"I know everything," She pointed to her laptop, "On there I have the hospital security footage, It should be ready for you to play around the same time that Jack left the room."

Greg clicked play and the pair watched the footage play out. About just over a minute after Jack had left the room a guy slipped in and then a few seconds later slipped out again. Many Doctor's and nurses came into the room a few moments after before Jack and Ianthe came into view.

"Rewind it a bit," Ianthe said and watched the footage carefully as Greg did just that, "Stop there and zoom in on the guys face." Ianthe said as she told Greg to pause the camera recording as the guy left the room.

She got up from the stairs and moved over to her laptop and brought up a new program while Greg moved the blood sample that they had. The program - after Ianthe had entered the blood group - started searching through a set of databanks before stopping on one that was for the NHS.

Ianthe looked at the results of the search and instantly recognised the language that ran off her tongue so easily without her having to think about it.

"Tyler Llewellyn, twenty seven, Caucasian male originally born in Cardiff, Wales and still according to this he still lives in Cardiff. He's registered with a local doctor and he had an address on here that's in Cardiff as well."

"Anything about a car being owned in his name?"

"Yeah a blue Ford Fiesta TU zero eight SIH and currently that car is-" Ianthe broke off her sentence to bring up a new screen before she typed in the number plate.

"What where is his car at the moment?"

"Travelling along the M six. I presume he's heading to back to Cardiff."

"Alright then we should probably follow him back there, bring him in for questioning. If he lives in Cardiff then it may be easier to question him in the police station there. I'm guessing that, because it was him who killed Jack's Dad that he may have had something to do with Gray as well." Greg stopped speaking and turned around to find Ianthe gone.

He heard typing and beeping, so he made his way out of the autopsy bay and into the main part of the base. Ianthe was using the main computer that Brenda usually used to look at something.

"What is it?" Greg asked.

"Dan Wilshire, the same car is registered in his name and apparently someone called Tom Hughes as well," Greg just looked at her for a moment in silence before she spoke again, "Keep working I just need to check something." And with that she was gone.

Greg did as she had said and kept working until she came back up to the main part of the base and grabbed her coat.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"To see someone and to chase Tyler Llewellyn, so I might be away for a few days, sorry if that causes any problems." She was out of the man base by the time that she finished her sentence

"Okay, that's fine see you later." Greg said to himself.

* * *

Jack had searched through everything that he had packed and found that he hadn't brought his laptop. He had placed his phone on charge and put the TV on, ordered Indian takeaway and did what he usually did in Cardiff, minus the laptop and of course the fact that Ianto, Owen, Gwen, Toshiko and Rhys weren't here with him.

The doorbell went and he reluctantly got up to answer it. He hadn't though expected to see Ianthe stood on his doorstep.

"Jack I am going to be taking you back home to Cardiff."

"Did Mum say that you could?"

"No, but she'll be alright with it. She doesn't mind you going back, but she doesn't want to. She's staying at Brenda's tonight to make sure that she's alright."

"So what about you?" Jack asked as they walked back into the living room and sat down, "Do you mind dropping me home?"

"No I have to go down to Cardiff anyway. We're chasing someone Jack. Someone who killed your father."

Jack looked at Ianthe in shock and waited for her explanation of this fact and when she gave him that he just became angrier and even more desperate to go home.

"So tomorrow what time are we leaving?"

"Just before six o clock alright with you?" Ianthe paused, but not for very long, "I can have you back by about two o clock and then you can sleep before Rhys's party."

"Yeah that's fine," Jack thought for a minute and didn't notice Ianthe go to leave until he heard the door opening, "Ianthe!" He called as he rushed out to the hall where Ianthe was now waiting.

"Greg said to tell you that your blood group is an O like your Father."

"How is that relevant?"

"You were the one who called my name and then didn't say anything."

Jack shook his head, "You said yesterday about their being a base in Cardiff."

"Yeah it's still there." Ianthe replied.

"Can I have a key?" Jack asked

"I'll see what I can do, but no promises."

"Thanks," Jack paused before he asked, "Are you sure that Gray's dead?"

"We can't be wrong Jack. He was reported dead fourteen months ago."

"So why didn't they tell me?"

"Your Dad wanted to, but your Mum didn't want to upset you."

"She upset me more this way." Ianthe looked at Jack slightly solemnly before she left the house. Jack moved the shut the door when Ianthe reappeared.

"By the way Jack, did you know that your friend Ianto Jones is blood type AB negative?"

"No I didn't."

"Well I'd remember it Jack." Ianthe told him as she walked away and climbed into her car.

"Why?" Jack called after her, but he received no answer. So he shut the door and made a mental note to himself that Ianto was blood type AB negative for whatever it may be that he would need that piece of information for.

* * *

Sorry this is one day late, but I did make it slightly longer, because of that, so I hope that I can make that up to you all. Thanks for reading, reviewing, favouriting and alerting.


	16. Chapter 16

I still know that I need to update Four Senses and I will – so sorry that it has taken me so much time, but I have got my drama assessment out of the way now which gives me more time to write at lunch times – so here is chapter sixteen, thank you for all of the favourites, alerts and reviews so far.

* * *

Jack made sure that he was up at half five and that he was completely ready to return to Cardiff by ten to six. He sat down and watched TV for five minutes, before the doorbell rang, so he got to his feet and opened it to see Ianthe (as he had expected) waiting outside.

"Ready?" She asked.

"Yeah, I just have to get my bags." Jack turned away from her and picked up the bags that he had brought with him. Ianthe held the door for him and then shut it behind him before moving towards her car to open the passenger side door.

Jack put the bags behind the seat before climbing inside. Ianthe got in the driver's side and started the car, driving out of the houses drive way and on to the main roads of Scotland in silence.

"I'm liking the car by the way." Jack spoke and afterwards silence never filled the car again for the entire length of the journey.

* * *

Greg Thompson hated working alone. Well that was a lie. He hated working knowing that he was the only one doing so in that work building, especially in this building. He sighed and left the numerous chemicals that he had been fiddling with alone and made his way up to the main part of the base. Greg logged onto his computer and brought up the security camera's feeds.

The Doctor made his way down to the morgue with the body of Jack's Dad and assigned the body a locker. He kept the morgue as organised as he could, although Ianthe was usually the one that filled in all of his paper work and filed it for him, so that he could find it again if he ever needed it.

Although tonight he did the paper work himself. He wrote a name onto the small slip of paper that was attached to the front of the locker and made a note of the locker number in his head and on the paper work before he turned and left.

Greg then wrote down the name of Jack's Dad next to that number on the main list that was attached to the door that was at the front of the morgue. After doing that he took the clipboard down to the bases archives – although they were more like Ianthe's archives in all reality.

While he was down there though he noticed something that was defiantly out of place down here. He bent down to pick it up, moving away from the H files he bent down to the floor and picked up the strange looking stone. Greg lifted his head to look at the cabinets that were above him.

On the right side of the part of the archives that Greg was currently in were cabinets that went from A to I for people and on the left was the cabinets for A to I of alien artefacts or objects that they had confiscated from criminals. So he was looking at an alien artefact or confiscated item that had to of come from the H section.

Greg took it back up to the main part of the base with him and began to run some analyses on it to try and find out what it was at the same as looking back through the records to see if he could find out what it was.

* * *

Toshiko wasn't quite sure why she did it, but she was glad that she did, not sure that she would have been able to stand being alone for much longer. The young Japanese girl made her way up to Ianto's house at some time around eleven o clock. Ianto answered the door almost a minute after she rang the bell and invited her in.

"Thanks Ianto, I just thought that you may like some company for a while."

"Thanks Tosh, I would like that." Ianto replied as he hinted for her to go into the living room. Tosh did so and sat down on the sofa. Ianto sat next to her a moment later and looked at her carefully studying her features before he said anything else.

Toshiko's reason for coming here had seemed so fake to him. He studied her face looking at the tear tracks that were visible on her coppered skin.

"Tosh are you alright?"

"Y..yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"Because you look like you've been crying, but if you're fine then that's good." They sat in silence for a moment, before Toshiko burst out into tears again and explained everything to him.

Ianto listened, some of it scaring him and making him wish that he could say something like 'everything will be fine' or 'it's not that bad' maybe something like, 'it will be alright,' except none of them seemed to fit to the situation.

* * *

Owen went out on Saturday into town, not only to get Rhys's present, – because he still needed to do that – but mainly to find a girl that was going to Rhys's party that he could dance with tonight. Eventually he settled with Lucy Rogers, who had instantly accepted his offer of dancing with him.

Lucy Rogers was blond about five foot three and a girl that everyone wanted to date and although Owen was well aware that he was the one who had asked her to dance with him tonight he knew that he had lots of things that he would rather do than what he had just asked.

* * *

Jack sung along to some of the stuff that was on the radio and laughed when an advert for Harwood's haulage came on the radio and he faintly remembered Rhys saying something about wanting to work there when he was older.

"That's a bit cheesy isn't it?" Jack asked Ianthe after the advert finished.

"Very." She replied. After she had said that the radio show host announced that the next song would be the _Taylor Swift_ song _Safe and Sound_ that was going to be the theme to _The Hunger Games_, the current film that everyone was waiting for. The song started playing and Jack found himself sighing and looking out of the window.

"You don't listen to_ Taylor Swift_ then?"

"No, I don't usually," Jack replied as he turned to face Ianthe, "What about you?"

Ianthe laughed, "What time do you think that I get to listen to music Jack?" When Jack thought about it he then understood that it was a slightly stupid question, considering Ianthe's job, "The only music that I ever get to listen to is the_ Ballad of Death_ or in the amount of cases that we manage to see deaths – plural."

"Yeah I suppose you are right."

"I do play the violin though." Ianthe said and Jack smiled slightly, as well as being slightly shocked.

"I wouldn't have guessed that."

"No one ever does," Ianthe paused before she spoke again, "Do you play an instrument at all?"

"Me? No, God no. If I ever did then it would sound horrible, the best that I can do is bang a drum, hit a triangle or shake a tambourine," Once again, Ianthe found that comment quite amusing, "No really I mean it, it would be like ten cats screeching like eagles all at once."

"I don't think that cats can screech like eagles."

"Oh you know what I mean." Jack replied as he saw the sign for the exit onto the M four into Wales meaning that the remainder of the journey that had left was about thirty five minutes.

"Ianto said that he plays the piano and the guitar, he's good. Well I mean I've never actually heard him play, but I'm guessing that he's good, because well he seems like he might be and he took music for GCSE and-"

"You really like Ianto don't you Jack?"

Jack Harkness was slightly taken aback by that, although he was going to say that it was more of the shock that his feelings were that obvious.

"How did you-"

"I've done this job long enough Jack to realise that you have to be able to read people's emotions and facial expression otherwise you find yourself with a bullet through your chest."

"Figures." Jack mumbled.

"So then best friend, boyfriend, or hopeful future boyfriend?"

"What-" Jack forgot what their conversation was about for a minute, "Oh the last one, but I still think that he's not being completely honest with me."

"Then maybe you could get him to tell you by promising him something."

"Like, I don't know, because I don't know what he hasn't told you, I'm not a mind reader, unfortunately," She paused, "But promise him something to do with whatever he tells you. That always works."

"It does?"

"Yeah," _Safe and Sound_ began to come to an end and Ianthe looked to Jack, "As the song says, you have to keep him Safe and Sound." Jack laughed slightly.

"That was clever."

"Not really," She paused and looked to Jack, "So Ianto Jones?"

"Yeah, Ianto Jones, defiantly him," He looked down, "You'd like him."

"I'm sure I would, if I ever get the chance to meet him."

"You will, how about before you go back up to Scotland?"

"If I go back up to Scotland, Jack." Silence followed for a short second, however Jack broke it as quickly as he could.

"You mentioned to me that Ianto was blood type AB negative. Ianthe how is that important?"

"How is it not?" She asked back. Jack had nothing to answer back to that comment with.

Ianthe stopped the car outside of Jack's house and he opened the door, collected his bags and said goodbye.

"You've got my number right?" Ianthe asked him.

"Yeah I have."

"Call me if you need anything. I can't guarantee that I'll always answer the exact moment that you do, but I always have my phone on me, so leave a message, okay."

"Okay," Jack replied before giving Ianthe a smile, "Bye."

"Bye." She drove off as Jack walked inside the house and walked into the lounge happy to be back in his own house. He threw himself down onto the sofa and slept off the travel sickness that had tried to get to him.

* * *

Tosh left Ianto's around four o clock and decided that despite the situation she was in, that she was still going to go to Rhys's party and try to take her mind off of her currency problem.

She picked out a purple dress that she had bought once when she went shopping with Gwen. She added to that the silver necklace that her Mum had given her and headed downstairs to grab her coat. Tosh also left a note on the dining room table for her Mum in case she came back and forgot about the party that Tosh was going to.

Although Toshiko saw that as the unlikely option or thing to happen. If her Mother still wasn't back by tonight she would have to sleep on the horrible thought and then wait another twenty four hours until anyone would even listen to her.

Well anyone part from Ianto.

With a sigh she picked up her keys and mobile phone and pit them into her bag that she was taking with her, walked outside of the house and shut the door behind her.

* * *

Gwen was stood with Rhys by the door of the very big social club hall. Her Mum had just dropped her off and she had given Rhys his present and card and in return he had given her a kiss and a hug. His parents were already inside setting a few final things up. Owen and a few girls arrived first followed by Banana and Dav and a few more people.

Tosh walked up to them with a small smile. Owen – who had decided to wait at the door with Gwen and Rhys – looked away from her and Toshiko looked down at her feet.

A few minutes later, Gwen saw two figures walking up towards them. One she could recognise easily thanks to the shadow of the crutches, but the second took moments thoughts, until she saw the coat. Then she turned to face Rhys, Owen and Tosh with a smile.

"Jack's back."

* * *

Jack woke up to his mobiles alarm at half six and changed clothes into something a little bit more fancy before leaving his house at a quarter to seven to head over to Ianto's. He walked up the drive and had even rung the bell when the door was pulled open. At first Ianto gave him a look of disapproval for about three seconds, before the younger threw his arms around him.

"Whoa, someone missed me."

"You didn't text me like you promised."

"Sorry things went kind of strange while I was up there," Ianto didn't say anything as if waiting for Jack to explain, "I'll tell you later."

Ianto nodded, "Are you ready to go, because I am."

"Great then let's get going." The pair left the house and Jack noticed the lack of car in the drive, "Where's your Dad?"

"He broke up with his girlfriend, so he went out again for the weekend with some friends of his." Ianto said.

"Oh," Jack paused and looked to Ianto, "Ianto this may seem like a strange question, but do you know your blood type?" The Welsh boy looked at him slightly strangely, but didn't say anything nasty to him in reply - not that Jack had expected something like that from Ianto - and didn't say anything for a moment until he asked:

"Did you bang your head while you were away?"

"No, I didn't," Jack paused, "Don't worry it's not that relevant." And with that they kept walking. Jack looked over Ianto while he did so and there was nothing different except for how thin he looked. For the older was sure that that the younger looked a lot thinner than he had before Jack had gone up to Scotland.

Ianto was the first to notice the four figures that were stood outside of the club hall that Rhys's parents were renting for the evening.

When the pair reached them the four were smiling - with the small exception of Owen - and each one hugged Jack in turn (even Owen joined it that time).

The four then proceeded to go inside and Rhys made his way over to the stage and picked up a microphone from the side of one of the speakers while the others sat at one of the tables that were at the side of the hall.

"I would just like to thank everyone who's here tonight for coming and I hope we all have fun." After Rhys finished speaking people started chatting and dancing and just generally having fun and enjoying the evening.

Gwen and Rhys danced for a bit before sitting down at the table again. Owen was still dancing with a numerous amount of different girls and Toshiko watched him move across the floor from her seat.

"Owen hasn't asked you to dance yet then Tosh?" Rhys asked.

"No he hasn't," Toshiko replied. She was going to leave it at that until she noticed everyone's gaze on her, "It is fine I don't really mind, I'm not in a mood for dancing tonight anyway."

Food and drink followed after the dancing and after that Rhys sorted out birthday cake for everyone. Ianto gave his piece to Jack as he wasn't in the mood for eating still. After that they handed Rhys his presents and by the time that they had done everything that you generally do at a birthday party people started to go home.

"You can come back to mine if you want to Ianto, you don't have to be alone tonight if you wanted."

"Could you come back to mine?" Ianto asked and Jack had no problem with doing so.

"Sure."

The pair walked through the darkness back to Ianto's house and found themselves doing so in silence. The darkness was undisturbed as they pushed through it. When the pair reached the front door, Ianto handed his keys to Jack, who then unlocked and opened the door and moved to the side for Ianto to walk inside of the house before he followed him in.

Jack set the keys down onto the telephone table and followed Ianto into the living room. Ianto sat down on the sofa and Jack sat down next to him with a sigh.

"So," Jack started, but finding that he had nothing to add to that small two lettered word, although Ianto seemed to know a good idea of what to say to him.

"Jack what actually happened while you were in Scotland that you couldn't find the time to contact me or to contact any of us at all. You promised."

"Ianto," Jack paused, took a deep breath and told the younger everything. After all trust was a huge part of any relationship right? "I went up to Scotland with my Mum, because my Dad had been involved in a fight and had been shot and at the time it looked like he wasn't going to pull through, but then he got better and he was doing good for a few hours and then I left him alone for like five minutes and well he-"

Ianto was watching Jack carefully, but didn't interrupt the story. When Jack got to the part that he couldn't finish Ianto just sat and waited in silence for him to continue.

"He passed away, but Ianthe – you'd like her by the way Ianto and she's Welsh – she told me that she had worked with Greg last night, because they had a theory on something and they found out that they were right and someone else had killed my Dad while I was out of the room."

"Jack, I'm so sorry." Ianto shuffled closer and placed an arm around Jack who return the same gesture, pulling Ianto close to him, "It's not your fault, but don't worry Ianthe dropped me back and she's chasing the guy as we speak."

"That's good."

"And I should probably tell you about Gray."

"Who?" Ianto asked confused.

"Gray, he is- was," Jack corrected, "My younger brother. He went with my parents to Scotland and then disappeared. I always reckoned that he was deliberately kidnapped and Ianthe and Greg seem to have thought the same thing."

"So where is he?" Ianto asked, "Did your Mum and Dad find him?"

"Well they told me that they hadn't, but Ianthe showed me a file from the archives and that suggested something a little different from what they had kept on telling me."

"What did it say?" Ianto asked slightly cautiously, wondering whether or not it was the right thing to ask.

"They found him fourteen months ago, dead, in an old warehouse up there." Jack looked down, "Ianthe and Greg think that the same people who took and killed Gray also killed my Dad. But I'm just really worried that those same people might-"

"Come for you and your Mum?" Ianto half asked, half finishing Jack's sentence for him.

"Yeah, but I wondered if they would maybe go for my friends as well," Jack watched the look on Ianto's face change, "That would mean them targeting you, Owen, Toshiko, Gwen and even Rhys."

"But I'll be alright, because I have you to look after me and protect me." Ianto replied. Jack smiled back at him.

"Of course you do," He paused, "And you always will. You'll all be alright I will make sure of it."

* * *

Greg was becoming annoyed. The alien object was picking up as harmless on the scans and the files were saying the same thing, but he had a few different view points on it, although he didn't believe that Ianthe would have got her alien artefact or criminal object achieving wrong.

Suddenly on the computer screen a red flashing light dot appeared. Greg knew that a red dot meant something alien or criminal or just a threat from either human or extra-terrestrial nature.

Since he was alone he guessed that he should leave that one until Brenda and Mrs Harkness got in later on this evening. He decided to ring Ianthe and see what she thought the thing that he had found was as she would probably know from a bare minimum description.

So he phoned her.

* * *

Jack watched Ianto sleeping for a while before he fell asleep himself. The older woke up at about ten on the Sunday and heard banging on the door. He considered not waking Ianto, however in the end he decided to do so.

Ianto was woken up by Jack lightly shaking at him and then saying, "There's someone at the door." As soon as Jack said it Ianto knew who it would be. Ianto got up and made his way to the front door and opened it to see – as he had already guessed and predicted – Toshiko stood there with a very unhappy face and the same tear tracks from the day before.

* * *

Ianthe looked at the lit up screen of her phone and cursed Greg for calling her at this precise moment, silently in her head as she ran. Luckily she was good at hiding.

Most of the time. Except of course for the times when there was nowhere to hide.

Tyler Llewellyn and Mickey Daniels were chasing her. Both of them had known Dan Wilshire and Ianthe knew this, because she had listened to their conversation until they had spotted her from one wrong move.

Ianthe came to a halt and turned to face them. They both can to a stop and watched her carefully before Tyler stepped forwards and threw a punch at her face. Ianthe saw it coming, but let it connect with her lip anyway and even though it spilt it, it was better than the nose and head that was originally being aimed at by Tyler Llewellyn.

Mickey Daniels moved to be closer to him. Tyler grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back and then stopped when her phone rang again and this time she was glad. Listening to people's conversations went even better when there mobile phones rang and you managed to get their ringtone.

Tyler looked at Mickey before reaching into his jacket pocket.

"Don't answer it." Mickey snarled.

"But it's probably the boss." Tyler replied and that was when Ianthe interrupted them.

"Yeah and you killed one of my bosses." Both of them looked at each other and Ianthe untwisted her arm and elbowed Tyler in the stomach. Mickey moved to punch her, but Ianthe had spent so much time with criminals that she knew of counter strategy's like the one that she was about to use.

One that she had learnt from an old friend in Cardiff prison.

She caught his hand and didn't let go until he was on the floor bleeding and withering around in pain. She pulled out her gun and shot Tyler in the leg and then, only then, did she answer her mobile phone with a simple.

"What do you need Greg?" And after speaking to him she called the two man that lay on the ground an ambulance.

* * *

"Thanks." Tosh said as Jack handed her a glass of water before sitting back down on the sofa.

"So Ianto what have I missed here then?" Jack asked looking at the faces of his two friends.

"Jack, Tosh came to see me about his yesterday, but you see her Mum went out Friday morning and hasn't come back home."

"I'm sure she maybe just stayed with a friend."

"For two nights in a row Jack, without calling me or letting me know?" Tosh questioned him, "I don't think so."

"The police wouldn't listen to her, because she hadn't been missing for more than forty eight hours." Ianto informed him.

"Well then maybe she got forgot to call Tosh and tell her that she was staying with a friend."

"She wouldn't do that Jack, she never forgets." Toshiko pushed back her reply before handing Ianto a letter. Ianto looked at it carefully before turning it over and carefully opening the seal. At the same time Tosh finished her drink and Jack held out a hand for the glass. He took it from her before standing up and leaving the room with it.

He placed the cup in the sink in the kitchen and then made his way back into the living room. When he walked in he could feel the tense atmosphere and looked to Ianto who was trying to comfort a crying Tosh.

"What have I missed?" Ianto took the letter from beside him and handed it over to Jack, who took it and read through it before sighing. This was just turning out absolutely brilliantly.

Now Toshiko's Mother had been kidnapped and Jack feared that it was all because of him. He sighed and then heard a car pulling up. Ianto looked to the window and Jack walked over and looked out of it.

"Ianto your Dad has a hire car at the moment doesn't he?"

"Yes." Ianto replied, Toshiko looked up.

"Why is there a problem?" Jack shook his head.

"So who do you know that drives a red Volvo and would be pulling up at your house on a Sunday around the sort of lunch time?" Ianto thought for a moment before he replied.

"My Dad's friend Ian."

"Does he have any reason to be here?" Ianto looked to the other sofa that was in the room. He had hidden every single paper that had been in this room under there and he was pretty sure that he knew what Ian would look for, so he told Jack a dangerous thing that edged on the real truth.

"No, and if he does then it's not a good one."

"So what do we do?" Tosh asked, worried that this guy could be dangerous. Ianto looked at her and then pointed towards the kitchen.

"We go out of the back door," Tosh got up from the sofa before Ianto continued, "Jack can we head to yours?"

"Yeah, but I don't get why we have to leave your house I mean if it's your Dad's friend then-" Ianto stopped Jack speaking when he heard a car door slam.

"I'll tell you later now come on, we need to go and will you get away from that window please?" Jack moved away from the window as he saw the guy moving away from the car and towards the door of the house.

Tosh had already headed out to the kitchen after Ianto told her to go out of the back door and when he and Jack met her out there they heard a key being turned in the lock. Ianto picked up the keys to the back door and handed them to Toshiko who opened the door as quickly as she could before moving outside to let Ianto and Jack out before she shut it again and locked it.

Ianto moved towards the gate that would lead into the back lane and Jack flipped the catch and undid the three bolts before ushering the pair that he was without into the lane. He joined them before realising that he couldn't actually lock the door from the back lane.

"Leave it." Ianto told him, picking up on Jack's dilemma.

"Ianto, not that I think that you are wrong to be leaving your house, because your Dad's friend is here, but why are we?"

"Because I don't know the guy." Ianto lied and Jack could tell that he was, although Toshiko seemed to think that the whole thing was a bit of a joke. Tosh stopped when they reached the end of the lane.

"I'm going to head home and ring the police again and see if they'll accept my missing person report file now. Thanks for the cheering up Ianto, but you should probably go back in and see your Dad's friend, he's probably only come round to check up on you. It was a good idea though." Tosh smiled as she left before returning to her solemn faced look.

"She thought that you were trying to cheer her up."

"Let her think that." Ianto replied, pleased that Tosh hadn't seen through him.

"Why?" Jack asked interested into what was really going on with Ianto and his Dad, so he decided to remind him of what he had said earlier, "You said that you would explain to me why we left."

"When we get to your house I'll tell you."

"Promise?" Jack asked.

"Promise." Ianto replied before they started walking. But what Jack hadn't seen was Ianto crossing his fingers behind his back.

* * *

Greg dashed out of the base as soon as Brenda and Mrs Harkness walked in, after – of course – explaining to them about what had gone on. He jumped in his car and began to drive down to London, talking to Ianthe on speaker phone as he made the journey.

"Is the ambulance there yet?"

"Yes, I wouldn't worry, they say that the pair of them are going to be just fine," Ianthe replied, "Come on Greg I'm not stupid. I wouldn't kill the only remaining leads that we have."

"I know, but- What did you actually do to them?" Greg asked changing the subject.

"Just shot one of them in the leg you know the usual." She replied.

"We don't have a usual."

Greg heard her sigh with slight annoyance, "Are you on your way to London yet?"

"Yes I am! Good God, Ianthe, it is about and eight hour drive from Scotland to London and in my current traffic situation, I'm going to put it at eight and a half hours until I get there and then I have to drive to Canary Wharf, so that will be another twenty minutes if the traffic's bad."

"Alright, I get it, Greg, you can stop boring me with the traffic news in your area and start telling me something that's worth my time. Thank you." She said.

"What are you thanking me for?" He asked confused.

"I wasn't thanking you, Greg, you idiot. I was thanking the ambulance crew."

"Oh, well that makes complete sense. You thank them and I'm driving to London for you, but you don't thank me."

"Oh stop complaining and where are you?" Ianthe asked him down the line of her mobile phone.

"I'm on the A eighty four, why?" Greg asked.

"Because I need you to come and pick me up before you go to London."

"Hold on, just need to input that on me satnav." The doctor replied.

"Don't use a satnav, you'll never get here."

"Oi! I don't have you in the car with me for directions, so I am using a satnav."

"Fine, just make sure you actually get here."

"According to my satnav-" Greg started.

"Bloody satnav." He heard Ianthe mumble from the other end of the line, however he didn't mention it.

"It says that the whole journey will take me ten hours and fifty minutes and about seven hours and forty two minutes to get to Cardiff," Greg informed her, "Traffic permitting of course." Ianthe sighed and that was the end of that conversation.

* * *

Jack let them both in before walking into the kitchen.

"Coffee."

"That will be great." Ianto replied. He then checked that Jack was out of sight before he left the house, shutting the door carefully behind him before pulling his mobile out and calling an old friend of Rhiannon's.

* * *

Okay I will update on Saturday and I hope to post an extra-long chapter of Four Senses either tomorrow or Saturday and then go back to my usual updates with that. I have a bit more time now, since all my exams and assessments are done and all of my long-term projects are being handed in this week in time for our enrichment week (which is next week, so that means more writing time) and it's the summer holidays soon as well, so that also equals more writing time.

I also have my music exams and concert out of the way, so I don't have to do too much practise each week, just like fifthteen minutes a day per instrument, so I should be able to get more chapters to you all soon.

Thank you all for reviewing, favouriting, alerting and reading :)

P.S. The use of the song _Safe and Sound _in this chapter is, because all of my friends are obsessed with it and one of them sang it in out music lesson yesterday, so it was in my head while I was writing that part of this at lunch time and during the end of my RE lesson.


	17. Chapter 17

Okay I hope you like this and there will be a small time skip in this chapter about half way through, but here's chapter seventeen.

* * *

Jack had walked back into the lounge with coffee to find Ianto gone. He'd rang Tosh and asked her if she had seen Ianto and the only reply that she had to that was the truth as he had been with her when she had left to go back to hers.

So the older American headed round to Ianto's house. The red car that had pulled up was now gone and if Ianto was there he didn't answer the front door. So Jack went round the back. The door to the lane was still open like they had left it, so Jack let himself in.

He still had Ianto's keys to the back door that the younger had left with him, so he went in. Ianto wasn't there and Jack tried to think of where else the Welsh boy would go before trying each and every place that he thought of and at none of those places was he.

Sunday consisted of Jack sitting at home talking to Toshiko on facebook who told him that her Mother was still missing. Jack had considered phoning Ianthe many a time to see if she could help them to find Toshiko's Mother, but each time he didn't.

He sighed and hoped that Ianto would at least appear at school on Monday.

* * *

The dark blue car stopped outside of the collection of buildings. Two figures stepped out of it and made their way towards one of them, stopping to look up at the top, the male spoke first.

"You wouldn't believe that this was once base One would you. I mean you wouldn't believe anything that was inside of there would have been," He paused, "I hate to think of the number of criminals who escaped though. The event must of damaged security long enough for a few of them to do so."

He looked at the person who accompanied him before he continued, "And I don't think they accounted for criminals afterwards. Just the dead bodies that they found. Damn Yvonne was terrible with her paper work, I hardly ever knew what she had there."

"You're telling me that? I was the one who had to read and file it all, her handwriting was terrible you could barely make out her signature. I remember about ten times when I wasn't sure whether or not the signature was hers or someone else's."

He watched as she made her way towards the door. He followed up behind her and stopped while she unlocked it.

"Ianthe why did we keep a hold of the tower afterwards and have it rebuilt for no real reason?"

"It worked to cover up suspicion didn't it?" Ianthe replied as she managed to unlock the now stiff door. She walked in and Greg followed along behind. The pair of them made their way to the underground part of the tower.

The basement had been extended a few floors when Torchwood took over the tower. The archives and the vaults were kept down there and Ianthe and Greg made their way into one of the doors on the right that lead into a collection of twenty cells: ten to a side.

"Nothing," Ianthe said, "Are you sure that you registered something here?"

"Yes I'm sure I was monitoring for heat signals and it reported that all of the cameras were down."

"Well that's no surprise, Brenda was meant to update them some time last year." Ianthe replied as she left the room, Greg followed speaking loudly, thinking that she had walked off.

"Well that isn't-" Ianthe hand covered his mouth and he turned to look at her in confusion. Ianthe hinted with her head over to the door on the other side, opposite the one that they had just been in. She removed her hand and he made his way over to the door and placed a hand on the handle.

Ianthe – without Greg noticing – drew her gun and held it at her side. Greg pushed the door open to be greeted by a smiling face (although he thought that it was more like smirking) of a female.

"Hello at last I wondered how long it would take you to realise that I was here." She was enjoying this and he could tell.

"Milton." Greg said through gritted teeth. Ianthe remained behind him. When she had caught first glimpse of the woman she had darted to other side of the wall to avoid being seen by her. At the same time she had slipped the gun away and listened to what she had to say.

"Alone are we."

Greg was silent for a moment in thought before he replied, "No I travel alone, I always travel alone." He looked back over his shoulder to find Ianthe gone and he sighed in relief before he turned back to face Milton.

"Your camera system really is terrible you should get someone to update it oh I know how about a Toshiko Sato." Milton replied. Ianthe searched her brain, didn't Jack have a friend called Toshiko? Yes, he did, she was sure.

"Who is she?" Greg asked, having not spent the same amount of time with Jack that Ianthe had.

"You'd be wise to find her, I mean she has something that could be very useful especially since we have something special to her."

"What have you got? What have you done?"

"Not what have we done, my dear Greg, but what we're going to do." Ianthe was slightly confused as to how she knew Greg's name. They had always been careful with criminals to make sure that they didn't give out their names.

Greg yelled and Ianthe ran.

* * *

Ianto sat on Susan's couch watching the TV absent mindedly. It seemed that everyone watched Come Dine with Me nowadays.

"So are you alright then Ianto?" Susan asked as she sat down on the sofa next to Ianto with to cups of coffee.

"Yeah I am, thanks." He replied, thanking her for the coffee.

"That's strange you saying that when you're the one covered in injuries and on crutches."

"I'm fine, it was a small car crash."

"If you are sure," Susan paused, "I haven't seen you since Rhiannon's wedding day Ianto."

"And death day." Ianto mumbled.

"Hey, don't think about that." Susan told him, not happy that he was thinking about what had turned into the real main event of that day. Ianto said something, but she didn't quite catch it, so she said something else.

"Now are you going to tell me why you were really here or not, you can't just turn up on my doorstep after a few years, have coffee and dinner with me and then go without telling me why you really came here."

Ianto sighed, "I need advice on something."

"That something being?"

"Love."

* * *

Toshiko didn't sleep very well that night once again. Without her Mum in the house, she had to lock up and make sure that she had turned off all of the power. She would find herself waking up at random points with the sudden thought that she hadn't locked this or she hadn't turned off this or that.

Tonight was no different. Well it was four o clock now and she had already decided that she would be getting no more sleep, so she got ready for school and sat on the sofa with the TV on, barely watching it, just liking the sound that it gave off to make her feel like she almost wasn't alone.

She was only even gladder when the sun rose and the time came for her to go to school.

She was even more happy when she saw Ianto stood outside of his house waiting for her. The pair walked to the corner to meet the others and Ianto noticed the shocked look on Jack's face.

"Where did you go yesterday Ianto, I was worried about you?" Jack asked loudly, but not loud enough that the others would hear him.

"I went to a friend's house," Ianto replied, "It's alright, it wasn't important."

* * *

Ianto spent the whole day trying to avoid John and keep himself on a good level with Jack. He watched Jack, Rhys, Owen and John play rugby in PE and cheered on Jack, Rhys and Owen as well as he could. Rhys was good at rugby, Jack was alright at it and Owen was doing well until one point in the game.

John went to tackle Jack, so Owen tackled him. The pair of them tumbled to the ground and the result was Owen landing awkwardly on the little finger of his left hand, yelling out in pain. When their teacher told him to go and see the school's first aider.

Although Ianto knew that Owen would probably know what injury he had already. Ianto decided to go with him, to which their teacher had no quarrel.

"Will it be alright?" Ianto asked, Owen looked at him in slight confusion, "Your finger, that is, will it be alright?"

"It's broken, but broken bones heal as you know."

"How long till your ankle's fully healed and you don't have to walk with crutches?"

"Four weeks minimum. I have an appointment in two weeks and four days to find out."

"Well good luck to you Ianto."

* * *

Four days and two weeks later Ianto was sat in a hospital room with Jack and Doctor John Smith, looking over his x-rays and his ankle as it currently was.

"Right so it's been four weeks and two days since you broke it and comparing how it is at the minute to the x-rays that we took, I'm going to say that it needs another week." Doctor Smith told them. Ianto sighed and rolled his eyes.

"The ribs are healing well, I reckon that they can be unbinded around a similar time." Ianto was happy about that part.

His Dad had returned two weeks ago, but the pair had avoided each other with their worst being a few dagger eyed looking glares in each other's direction.

* * *

One week later Ianto returned to the hospital, once again with Jack tagging along and Ianto was overjoyed when John Smith said that he could have his cast taken off now.

"I want you to keep the crutches with you still for a little while, but you only have to use them if you need them. I am though going to give you another two weeks out of your PE lessons just to be on the safe side and I'm not overly keen on how that wrist is healing." Doctor Smith told them.

"Why what's wrong with it?" Jack asked once John Smith had finished speaking.

"Well its healing was probably slowed down by Ianto needing the crutches, it should speed up to a normal rate now since he won't be using them." The pair left the hospital. Jack kept a hold of Ianto's crutches, since the younger demanded that he be able to walk along alone and unassisted.

He was actually doing very well considering. Although there was one point when Jack considered getting a taxi back to St Helens Hospital.

They had just arrived outside of Ianto's house and Jack only just managed to catch Ianto as he fell backward. The front door of the house opened at that point as well and Ianto's Dad walked out with a bucket and sponge as Jack picked Ianto back up.

"You two alright?" He asked, Jack nodded, "So no cast anymore, Ianto there's a bonus for you." The man added a comment mainly directed at his son.

"Well if you are alright to stand on your own two feet now Ianto, I suppose that I will see you on Monday, just two days in between that."

"Yeah, thanks for helping me back here." Ianto replied as Jack handed him the crutches.

"You are welcome." The older said as he turned and walked away, while Ianto made his way inside. Jack didn't look back, Ianto didn't look over his shoulder, but if either of them had then they would have seen the look on Ianto's Dad's face.

* * *

On Saturday morning Ianto was out of the house in his record time since the car accident and he found that he was back to doing things close to what his normal speed had been. He made his way down to Toshiko's at a steady pace and only stopped when he got to her house. That was when he rested his ankle, while he waited for her to answer the door.

"Ianto!" She exclaimed when she saw him, wrapping her arms around him in a hug, "You don't have any crutches any more, good for you."

"I still have to be careful though."

"You are always careful Ianto." Toshiko replied with a small smile.

"Have the police found her yet?" Ianto asked, slightly nervous about actually voicing the question.

"No," Toshiko replied, dropping her head sadly, "No they haven't. They said that they'll search for another few days, but afterwards nothing."

"Why?" Ianto asked, slightly shocked that they would just give up like that."

"They said that they don't have enough evidence to keep it going and if they find something else they'll continue, but that doesn't look at all likely."

"I'm sorry about that Toshiko." Ianto made his way away from Toshiko's after that and over towards the Cardiff prison. He felt uncomfortable in these places always and even though he knew that he was doing this for a good reason, he was still so unsure that it was actually the right thing for him to be doing at this point in time or at all.

He walked up to the reception desk were a young female smiled slightly at him.

"Hello, how can I help you?" She asked him politely.

"I'm here to see someone called Dafydd Lewis." Ianto replied.

"Father?" The woman questioned. Ianto shook his head.

"No. Uncle."

When Ianto first saw his Uncle he wanted to claim that he didn't actually know the man, however he knew then that he would be lying and he had come this far without his Dad noticing, so he didn't see a reason for giving up just yet. The police officers showed him in and left him in the room.

It had guards everywhere and a few other people sat at tables talking to members of their families or friends of theirs.

Ianto sat down on the other side of the table and looked across it at his Uncle.

"They told me that you got my letter. And that you rang back in reply to it," He paused, "I didn't think that it would take you this long."

Ianto raised his still injured wrist that was still in a splint. His Uncle looked at him, slightly shocked, but Ianto could see the worry etched into the man's features.

"What happened Ianto? Who did that to you?"

"No one I was in a car accident," Ianto replied, "I was on crutches as well, but I got off of those yesterday."

"Who was driving the car?"

"My Dad."

"Oh figures, doesn't it. I should of known that it would have been him driving the bloody, damn car from the moment that you first said it."

"This is why I didn't come to see you while I was still on crutches, because I knew you would react like this."

"Well it's not my f***ing fault that I'm even here! I didn't do bloody, bugger all nothing!" Dafydd Lewis stood up and banged his hands on the table. An officer moved towards them, but Ianto waved him back, standing up as well.

"Sit down, Uncle please." He begged, his eyes indicating to the chair. The older man looked at him and took a deep breath before sitting back down. Once he had sat back down in his chair, Ianto followed suit.

"I'm sorry."

"It's alright."

"No, it's not alright Ianto, I am not like your Dad, I'm not!"

"I know that you're not, you don't have anything to prove to me!" Ianto paused and breathed in for a second to lower his voices level of tone before he spoke again, "I know you have a few anger issues at times, but if there is one thing that I am sure of-"

Ianto stopped and looked at his Uncle who waited silently for his Nephew to continue, "If there is one thing that I am defiantly sure of at this moment in time and these minutes of my life, it's that you are nothing, and I repeat, nothing at all like him."

"Well that's reassuring." His Uncle replied.

"I've not got too long," Ianto said as soon as his Uncle had finished his sentence, "So what was this small favour that you wanted to ask of me?" Ianto asked.

"I need you to tell your Mum something for me."

"Keep up Uncle, she's dead and no you weren't in prison or on holiday when she died you were there, you were the one who told me and my Dad that she was dead."

"I know and why do you think that was?" He questioned.

"Because you were the only one there. Why else would that be? Because you are her brother maybe?"

"No Ianto, because she isn't bloody dead." Ianto felt his blood run cold.

* * *

Brenda could feel her fingers aching as she typed, searching their whole computer database for one file and one file alone. It was all that they needed to get themselves out of this hostage situation.

Three weeks and four days ago had seen Greg leave to go and meet Ianthe. Neither had returned, so Brenda and Mrs Harkness had started search parties for the pair of them in London and the area between London and Scotland.

Two weeks ago she had shown up with her armed guards, claiming to know where Greg was. Neither of them mentioned Ianthe as she didn't seem to be aware of her. Just like she hadn't been of Brenda until she had entered their base – rather rudely – and interrupted a very import chat between the pair that focussed around London.

And ever since then, the pair of them had done the same thing day in and day out. Looking for one particular thing that neither of them had had the luck or gifted miracle of finding just yet and it was annoying all of them to hell and back again.

"We don't have all year you two. You've already spent two whole weeks looking for it, how much longer do you need?" The woman snapped her question at the pair of them, angrily.

"As long as it takes us." Mrs Harkness snapped back.

"We aren't Ianthe for God's sake." Brenda replied before removing her fingers from the keyboard to allow herself to smack her hand across her mouth.

"What was that name that you said?"

"Nothing. It was nothing. She didn't say any name." Mrs Harkness said trying to cover up Brenda small slip up. Brenda looked guilty as hell and that defiantly wasn't helping to cover up the mistake.

"Oh, but she so obviously did." The woman replied moving closer to the pair of them. Milton was her name and Mrs Harkness had recognised her from the moment that she had seen her. She had been there when Greg had first met the woman. A day that had horrific events throughout that she had no intention of relieving.

"The name is all that I want, so why don't you just tell me the name?" Milton asked as she walked closer to the pair.

"Why would we?" Brenda interrupted, having removed the hand from her mouth, so that she could speak and join in on the conversation.

Silence followed and Brenda could see the gun that was in Milton's possession as well as the weapons that her guards were holding. As the seconds went by, Brenda was busy making a mental note to herself to never let Ianthe go away again until she had explained the whole archive system to them and maybe to not let her go away again at all.

The silence was killing and when Brenda's computer beeped she turned to it and clicked to open the notice. Milton, Mrs Harkness's and the guards eyes were all trained on her. The notice read File non-existent.

"S***." Brenda cursed as she looked at the wording, "Damn it, Ianthe." That time she said the name just too loud. She was shoved out of the way, falling back into Mrs Harkness and they could only watched as Milton typed the name into their computer database, waiting for the file to be brought up automatically onto the screen to tell her everything about the Welsh girl.

* * *

Ianthe sat on the purple quilted bed and looked around the room. The colours were still a shock to her. Four pink walls and two purple. Add to that a purple lamp shade, a book case, cabinet, dressing table and a wardrobe and you had the perfect make up of a twelve year olds bedroom.

The young blonde haired girl entered the room with the glass of water that she had mentioned getting and sat down beside Ianthe. The same little girl's laptop was sat open beside Ianthe with tons of numbers and letter running across the screen.

As Ianthe had long ago predicted, even after three weeks and four days, the child was still fascinated by them.

"So anything new or do you still just have a set of numbers?" She asked.

"Numbers." Ianthe replied as she clicked a button that brought down another set of highlighted green shadowed numbers. The twelve year old watched them fall in fascination.

"I've never seen anything like that. It's way better than what we learn at school and you just make it happen with a click of a button and-"

"Emily." Ianthe interrupted the child, who looked at her with such a sweet and young faced look. The look of someone who hadn't grown up seeing a world of blood and violence; action and danger; sadness and death; silence and darkness, right in front of her for otherwise that look would not be like that. She paused before she spoke agin.

"Where did you say your parents were again?" Ianthe asked, not her planned thing to say, however it would have to do as she couldn't find it in her to say the words that she had originally wanted to.

"They're travelling, but it's alright they leave me money, well they send it to me and I have a bank account, so I'm fine and I go shopping and I buy myself ready meals and fruit – I buy lots of fruit since Mum always said it was good for me – and I watch the news to keep up on events and I have a laptop and-"

"And there's still so much that you can't do, because of it." Ianthe finished for her, not wanting to hear he rest of the list and anymore of the constant _'ands'_ that she had heard to many times before when Emily had told her that same thing, although in fairness she was usually the one who asked.

"Yeah, that's what I was going to say next."

"Emily, tell me again why you are so willing to help me?"

"Because you help me," She replied, "And you do it all of the time without thanks, but you keep thanking me."

"Yeah try, because I'm a complete stranger, who's twice your age, who also happens to be hiding from people who may potentially kill you if they found me with you or found out that you had been allowing me to stay here (or of course just kill you anyway), who has very strange, but fascinating computer programs, oh and a gun."

At that point Ianthe raised the gun into the air before putting it back down again as if to help put the extra emphasis on her point and yet still the child seemed completely unafraid of what could be coming.

"So?" She asked.

"So?" Ianthe repeated, shocked, "That's it? I say all of that and the only answer that I get is a so?"

"Sorry, were you expecting something more?"

"Well if you want me to be honest I was expecting an _'oh yeah, you're right, now get out of my house' _reply, but if you want to go with a simple _'so'_ then I guess that's fine." Ianthe paused and Emily looked at her in the silence before she finally continued.

"So that's it, it doesn't bother you that I am dangerous, that I have a gun in my possession, that I could be being looked for by dangerous people, that I'm twice your age and that I've been staying in your house for almost four weeks, using your laptop to display my strange computer programs – after knowing all of that you seriously want to tell me that you aren't bothered by it?"

"Nope."

Silence fell again. This time Emily was the one who broke it.

"I saw the destruction off that tower on the news. I recognised you when I saw you leave it the other day. You were shown on the news when they started to rebuild it."

"It wasn't the other day it was three weeks and four days ago that you met me after you had recognised me."

"It feels like the other day to me."

Ianthe had met Emily after she had ran out of the tower. The girl had got in her way numerous times trying to get her attention and Ianthe wouldn't be here with her now if the child hadn't mentioned recording the building since they had rebuilt it.

The camera footage that she had went way back and Ianthe was viewing most of it to find out when Milton had first arrived there. That had been easy enough, so the only task left to her now was to find out what Milton actually wanted.

When night fell, Ianthe was sat leaning against the wall, laptop on the floor beside her along with her phone. That was soon picked up and put into her pocket before she picked up the laptop and dragged herself onto her feet at the same time. She exited the room as quietly as she could so as not to wake Emily.

She would be long gone by the time the girl woke up and the young child wouldn't remember a thing of the past four weeks.

But she would have a brand new laptop, since Ianthe had been forced to take her old one for the camera footage and because of the programs that she had been running on it.

She took a train to Cardiff, finding it the easiest way. While she was on the train she received a phone call from the Cardiff police force and the news that they gave her not only made her furious with them, but with the real leader behind this whole thing.

At some point in the journey though, she remembered that there had been a woman being held by Milton's security guards when she and Greg first met her back at the tower in London.

A Japanese woman.

* * *

Ianto looked at his Uncle in disbelief before he stood up and pushed his chair back.

"Ianto, where are you going?" His Uncle asked as he watched his Nephew push his chair in under the table.

"Home."

"You can't leave just yet, though I haven't-"

"Look," Ianto interrupted, "I will come back and see you when I've thought this over I just, I don't know what to, okay? I mean I don't think that I should even have come here today."

"Ianto, promise me you'll come back and we can just talk. You can tell me all about school and about how your girlfriend is – what was her name – Lisa Hallet."

"She's dead."

"Oh, Ianto, I'm sorry I didn't know-"

"It's fine. You remembered her and that's more than some people do."

"Well we can talk about anything it doesn't have to be about your romantic relationships or school, it could be anything just please promise me that I'll see you again."

"I will Uncle and you know that I always keep my promises, I just need some time alone to think this through in my head, I'll come back when I have everything all clear, I promise."

"Good, now promise me one more thing, and that's that you will keep out of your Dad's way."

"I will." Ianto replied, having no problem in doing that. He began to walk away and that's when his Uncle stood up.

"Ianto one more thing," He stopped and turned to face his Uncle, who walked the short distance between them in a few short strides, "I have always loved you and your sister and you have to know that I honestly didn't kill her."

Ianto looked at the man and thought through his next words, but when he said them he was completely sure that he backed them all of the way.

"I know you didn't and just you watch me prove it." With that Ianto left the room, leaving his Uncle in the shadow of the words which had just managed to rebuild his hope in ever getting out of here.

* * *

As Ianto made his way home to tried to clear things in his head. He took a detour in the end, deciding that he didn't want to let his Dad see him crying, so he headed to Jack's. He knocked on the door and then waited for his friend to answer. Jack did a moment later.

"Ianto," His happiness at seeing Ianto then left the tone of his voice, "Ianto, what's wrong?" Jack asked as he watched tears fall from the younger's eyes.

Ianto just shook his head and Jack moved forward to wrap his arm around him. Time seemed to stop for that moment as Ianto burred his head into Jack's shoulder.

And after that, life just seemed to take a very different and unexpected turn for both of them.

* * *

Alright hopefully my next update will be Tuesday, but it could end up being Wednesday, but I hope that I should be able to get the next chapter up by then. Thanks for favouriting, alerting, reviewing and reading.


	18. Chapter 18

Okay here is chapter eighteen, although it was slightly strange writing about Christmas in Summer.

* * *

Jack didn't know how long he had held Ianto there for, but he didn't dare let go for fear that the younger would break apart if he did.

"Ianto, do you want to come inside?" He asked and he expected words as an answer, but he felt Ianto shake his head, "I don't mind if you do, I'm not doing anything at all."

He felt Ianto shake his head again and slip out of the embrace that they had held for so long and in such peace with each other.

"I'll be fine, I don't even though why I came here." Ianto replied, wiping the tears from his face. Jack would never admit it, but Ianto's last eight words had really hurt him deep down, although he did his best to hide that.

"Okay, well you're going to come over next weekend aren't you? For Christmas?" Jack asked. Friday had also been the groups last day at school and now they were off of school until the fifth of January. Ianto had completely forgotten that Jack had invited them all over for Christmas and New Year.

"Um, yeah I suppose so." He replied.

"Okay, well I'll see you then, then." Jack said as Ianto started to walk away. Jack watched him go before shutting the door and making his way back inside.

* * *

Christmas Day was on Saturday which put the wait for it at only a week. Out of their group, Owen was probably the most excited, well actually it might be Rhys. Owen had agreed to Jack's offer instantly, well aware that his Mum would probably invite her own friends round for Christmas.

Toshiko - with the police so close to giving up the search for her mother – not wanting to spend Christmas alone had too accepted the off quickly. Gwen and Rhys decided to join them to spend it with their friends and Ianto would have nothing better to do, so for him the decision wasn't hard either.

The week seemed to pass quickly and it was Friday before anyone really knew anything. Ianto had stayed in his room most of the time, looking at old photos and finishing off any homework that he had been given.

When he arrived at Jack's house, Toshiko and Owen were already there and Gwen was on her way with Rhys. He sat in the living room and Jack offered him a choice of a wide range of drinks. Ianto decided on lemonade in the end, after a lot of persuasion from Owen.

When Gwen and Rhys arrived they were offered the same choice of drinks and the pair quickly chose before sitting down in the living room. Jack jumped up onto the sofa next to Ianto and cuddled the younger closer to him. Toshiko tried to lean closer to Owen without him making some strange comment that he usually liked to hide how he really felt behind.

Owen was the one with the remote and was flicking through the channels on the TV until he found one that he liked. Ianto sighed as Owen settled on channel 4 and Come Dine with Me Christmas Special. One of the contestants tried to make Christmas themed shaped ginger bread men, which ended up as a fail that also brought up tones of laughter from Owen as he looked at the strange headed reindeer shape.

"So," Jack started, first to speak in hope of making a conversation with the people that he had invited over for Christmas rather than the TV talking uselessly too them, with the group then being unable to talk back to it.

However Jack hadn't actually quite thought through what he was going to say and now with everyone's attention on him, he had just seconds to think something up that would sound like something that he would have intended to say to begin with. As well as that it had to work with the so that had already started his sentence.

"Owen, what's you're Mum doing for Christmas this year?" He asked turning to Owen, happy to throw the attention away from himself for a second.

"Well she's inviting a few of her friends around and then I have no clue what they are going to do, but nor do I have any interest or any inclination to find out."

The conversation followed on from there on parents. Jack noticed that Ianto and Tosh both input very little and a lot of the conversations input came from Gwen, Rhys and Owen and most of that was moaning.

That night, Tosh and Gwen slept in Jack's room, Owen and Rhys slept on the sofa's and Jack and Ianto slept in the dining room on the floor. Although it was silent, Jack knew that Ianto wasn't actually asleep.

"Ianto, will you play the piano and guitar to me?" He asked completely out of the blue.

"No, Jack, not while everyone's sleeping." Ianto replied, slightly muffled because of how he was lying.

"I don't mean now, sorry that was a badly phrased question I meant maybe before we go back to school, but your wrist needs to be better of course."

"Alright," Ianto replied, "Can I get some sleep now please?"

"Yeah, I'm not stopping you." Jack told him before lying up looking at the ceiling in silence. Ianto was sleeping on his side with his back to Jack. An hour later, which made it about two o clock, Jack got up and quietly tip toed around the house, so as not to wake anyone else. He entered the room again a few minutes later, but this time he also had a glass of water with him.

"Ianto, I know that you are not asleep and I thought that you might like a glass of water as I know that I usually do if I can't sleep." Jack said as he placed the glass onto the table and sat back down on the floor on top of the blanket that he had put down. He sat in the same silence that he had been in before for a few moments until Ianto spoke back to him.

"No, I'm alright thanks," Ianto paused and then sat up and looked at Jack for a second before continuing, "How did you know that I wasn't asleep?"

"I could tell by your breathing patterns, I used to do the same with my brother."

Ianto looked at Jack strangely for a second as if the comment that he had just made was slightly weird and maybe lying on a few dangerous lines, but Ianto actually didn't think it was that strange, after all he identified people by their footsteps.

"Do you ever struggle to sleep Ianto?" Jack asked curiously.

"Sometimes," He replied before looking back down; one comment that was an obvious lie lay between the pair of them, Ianto sighed, "It happens most of the time I guess."

Jack wrapped his arms around Ianto, "Why does it happen? Nightmares or can you just simply not get to sleep easily?" He asked the younger as he pulled him close.

"More of the second, but sometimes the first happens as well." Ianto replied, letting his head loll against Jack's chest. He was so tired. Nothing else was said between them for a while and Ianto yawned before realising that he was slowly dosing off.

"Maybe we should see if the Doctors can give you something to help with it." Jack's voice finally spoke as Ianto shut his eyes and finally fell asleep. And that Christmas Eve was his first decent sleep in weeks.

All of them were in a good mood the next morning, even Tosh, despite the fact that her Mother was still missing the Japanese girl tried to enjoy herself at least just for the one day. Owen was watching the tree like a hawk. There were tons of presents under the huge completely decorated Christmas tree in Jack's living room and Owen was waiting for someone to tell him that he was allowed to open his.

It was nice for all of them to see Owen happy, even if that did mean him acting like a complete child. Toshiko found it quite sweet.

They had breakfast - in Jack's equally big dining room – which consists of pancakes and for Rhys a whole lot of maple syrup. After that Jack washed plates with Gwen's help and then the pair made their way into the living room. Ianto and Rhys were sat on one of the sofa's discussing cars, Tosh was sat on the sofa opposite, half listening and half watching Owen.

Owen had referred back to being sat on the floor by the Christmas tree taking present by present out from under it and sorting them into piles. Jack laughed slightly as he walked in and sat down on the sofa next to Tosh.

"Alright Owen, you can open them now." He spoke and the moment that the words had left his lips Owen started ripping the wrapping paper off of the presents that were his. The piles of presents were passed around to each of them, so that they could all do the same.

Later they all sat down and put BBC One on to watch _'A Christmas Carol'_ one of Owen and Rhys's favourite movies. When they were all sat down and watching it Jack made a comment on the film.

"If I had as much money as Scrooge then I would probably-" He was interrupted by Owen who turned around to look at Jack with a finger pressed against his lips.

"Shhh." He told him firmly before turning back to face the screen. Jack held his hands up in defeat and looked to Ianto. They were only on the first ghost (The Ghost of Christmas Past) when the doorbell rang.

* * *

Thomas Anthony Gregory Stepdon, Tom for short; was the only officer at the desk when the twenty four year old walked into the police station.

"Can I help you?" He asked, politely as she pulled out some kind of ID card and showed it to him. He took it from her hand and looked it over.

"Tell me all about this case on Toshiko Sato's Mother if don't mind."

"I'm not meant to though and if I am going to I should probably-"

"Go through normal procedures through your boss and head of station, but this is more important than that and it's running through a higher authority, so just tell me." Thomas looked down at the ID card again. You couldn't fake that kind of card design all of it looked official and felt official, but then how would he know.

"Okay this way," He said as he lead the girl behind the desk and opened a cabinet bringing out a folder with all of the case files in it, "We haven't been able to locate her yet, they were planning on giving up after Christmas and New Year, you know when everyone goes back to school."

"I wouldn't do that if I was you, because I can find her."

"You're joking?" He half asked half stated, although he could tell from the look on her face that she wasn't joking or lying. She just stared at him incredulously for a moment before he spoke again, "Okay so you're not joking then."

"I don't usually joke when I'm working, no," She looked back down at the file and then spoke again, "Although I see that you do."

"I try my best to lighten the mood." He replied, Welsh accent coming through thickly. It was only then that it occurred to him that the person he was speaking to was Welsh as well.

"One thing that I haven't asked you yet is why you are the only one working on Christmas Day."

"No one else really wanted to," Tom replied, "I mean the guards are still guarding the prisoners and there are still officers around and stuff, but I'm the only sort of one who was really willing to work today."

"Why? It's Christmas, surely you should be with your family or your friends since it's Christmas time, I mean that is just what most people seem to do these days."

"I don't really have anyone to spend it with," He paused, "But I can say the same thing to you."

"I have my reasons." Ianthe replied before shutting the folder and placing it on her desk. Tom watched her carefully as she pulled out a laptop and started to bring up some footage that she then watched over before looking back at the date that Toshiko said her Mother had first disappeared on.

She smiled.

"What? What is it? Have you found her?" Tom asked as she put the laptop away and grabbed the ID card from his hand before heading towards the exit doors.

"What do you think?" She asked back as she pushed the door open and walked outside. Tom stood there debating for a second over what to do as in theory he should go after her, but that would mean leaving his post – he could get fired or in serious trouble at least for that.

His decision was made slightly easier when she walked back in.

"By the way I never asked you your name, I'm assuming that it's PC, Police Constable?"

"Yes, PC Thomas Anthony Gregory Stepdon," He could see her roll her eyes at the long name, so he added, "Tom Stepdon for short though."

"Thanks." She once again went to walk away.

"Wait! Don't I get to know your name?" He asked not finding it fair how they had left it, "I mean you know mine, but I don't know yours, it's not really that fair is it."

She sighed, "Ianthe Lloyd."

"That's it?" Tom asked her astonished, "Nothing fancy like Isabella Elizabeth Novella Taylor?" He asked.

"Did you just make that up on the spot?" Thomas nodded, "Clever, I like it, anyway I need to find Toshiko, so if you'll just excuse me."

"Wait! I'm coming with you."

"No you are not." Ianthe replied before leaving the policeman stood alone.

* * *

Ianthe was walking away when she heard footsteps rushing up behind her. She sighted and rolled her eyes again, predicting the first word that would be said by the young officer. And as she had thought, she was right.

"Wait! You are not going without me."

"I told you Police Constable Thomas Anthony Gregory Stepdon," She started using his full name and title as if to make her point stronger, "That you are not coming with me. I can't involve you in something that it was above you and nor can I do that without my bosses permission."

"Well I let you read those files without my bosses permission."

"Higher authority." Ianthe replied as she walked out of the car park and onto the street as she made her way towards Toshiko's recorded address, although she did pull out her phone and text Jack to ask whether Toshiko was with him or not.

"That's all you ever say to me whenever I get too close to something that you don't want to tell me."

"Not that I don't want to tell you necessarily, but more like the fact that I can't," She turned to face him, "Or I would have to kill you."

"I'll take my chances." Tom replied. Ianthe stopped and looked at him and he did the same in the end she started walking again, so did the officer and this time Ianthe said nothing to him until he said;

"Wait! Why are we walking, we could take my car."

"Why didn't you mention that before?" Ianthe asked as she turned and started walking back towards the police cars.

"It just skipped my mind." He replied.

"If you aren't careful I'll give you a piece of my mind." Something about the way that she had said that made Tom think that she would actually carry that one out.

* * *

"Oh, why does someone always interrupt this film."

"Oh shut up Owen." Gwen told him.

"You are the one talking over it now." Rhys added. Jack stood up from the sofa, begrudging that he had to leave Ianto even if it wouldn't be for very long. He made his way forward and unlocked the door, pulling it open and was then surprised to see Ianthe with another person stood behind her.

"I texted you, but you didn't answer, so I thought that I would come here first to make sure that you were alright."

"Sorry we were watching '_a Christmas Carol' _I didn't hear it go off."

"That's alright. I'm assuming that when you said _'we' _you meant and were referring to yourself and Ianto."

"Partly, I also have Owen and that round as well." Jack replied, although he really didn't understand how Ianthe was able to read his love for Ianto so easily.

"Toshiko's with you then, I guess." Ianthe said.

"Yes she is," Jack replied, "Would you and whoever that is like to come in?" He offered, stepping aside for if they wished to do so.

"Thanks Jack." Ianthe said as she walked in. The copper followed behind her and he to thanked Jack who then shut the door before looking to Ianthe slightly confusedly. She looked to him and shook her head before mouthing to him _'I'll explain in a moment.' _Jack pointed towards the living room and Ianthe followed him in.

"Sorry to interrupt your favourite film Owen, but we have someone who would like to speak to Toshiko."

"Can they not just go into a different room and chat?" Owen asked, but Jack shook his head.

"Nope, but no one said that you had to listen," He turned to Ianthe and the police officer, "Everyone this is Ianthe Lloyd, she works with my Mum, that's how I met her, you know when I went up to Scotland a few weeks ago and this is-" He turned to the police officer and stopped speaking.

"Well I don't know who the hell that is."

Ianthe took this as her time to speak, "This is Police Constable Thomas Anthony Gregory Stepdon," She paused, "Tom Stepdon for short though. He works for the Cardiff Police force."

Toshiko eyes lit up and became sadder at that comment, "So what's going on? Have they found her? Or are they going to give up?" She asked, the last part of her sentence dropped the happy, hopeful tone.

"When you go back to school we are." Tom replied.

"No, you aren't," Ianthe replied, elbowing the officer in the ribs as she spoke, "Tosh I have both good and bad news for you and it's your choice which you want to hear first."

"Bad." Tosh replied after a moment."

"She's been kidnapped and it probably won't be easy to get her back, but if I read the reports that we have at our base well enough – which I always do – then they probably won't kill her."

"Okay and the good, what's the good news?"

"I know who has her, I think I also know where they have gone and I think I know a way to get her back. Which is what I am now going to go and do."

"I'm coming with you!" Toshiko shouted as she stood up from her chair and moved out into the hall to grab her coat. That comment got everyone on their feet and moving out to follow her."

"Toshiko you can't." Jack told her, having already seen Ianthe's line of work before.

"Tosh, think about this." Ianto said thinking logically, knowing that logic was something that Toshiko would listen to slightly more than possibility.

"Tosh it's far too dangerous." Gwen insisted.

"Yeah," Rhys added, "what they said."

"I don't care she's my Mum. I'm going with them." Toshiko replied as she pulled on her coat.

"No Toshiko you are not." Ianthe told her as she exited the lounge. "They are all right it's far too dangerous. Did any of you know that Jack was shot in the arm in Scotland when he was trying to help us catch a criminal."

Silence fell over everyone and Tom was suddenly wishing that he could maybe change his mind as he didn't really fancy getting shot any time soon, even if it was only in the arm. Ianto was the only one who wasn't shocked.

"Right Tosh you are not going." Owen said as he moved towards her to grab her hand, however Toshiko moved out of his reach and opened the front door.

"Are we going or not?" She asked. Ianthe sighed.

"Tosh, you have to be sure, because once I go back up to Scotland I can't bring you back down to Cardiff and I can't guarantee that we won't end up stuck up there as prisoners or something. So if you don't want to come with us then you sort of need to say now."

"I'm coming with you."

"I'm not." Thomas replied.

"Er excuse me, yes you are. After all of the fuss that you made, you are not backing out of this now," Ianthe told him before adding, "Anyway I need your car."

"Great now I'm the chauffer."

"Well if you can use a gun, I have an awful lot of them that I can get my hands on."

"Oh where are you going to get a massive amount of guns from?"

"You would be surprised," Jack pitched into the conversation, "I've seen their weapon cupboard."

Ianthe smiled, "It's impressive isn't it."

"Very."

"Show me then." Thomas told her, folding his arms across his chest.

"I will since you are driving." She turned to Toshiko, "You're sure about this?"

"Totally." Toshiko replied with a small nod.

"Say goodbye to everyone then. I don't want you regretting not doing so. Then we'll head to yours and get you some changes of clothes."

"And some snack." Tom added, receiving another elbow in the ribs from Ianthe.

For a minute the hallway only consisted of goodbyes and good lucks that were directed to Toshiko. The group left them all alone when she walked over to Owen to say goodbye to him.

"Owen, I'll miss you."

"Yeah." Owen replied, slightly more angrily than he had intended, annoyed that Toshiko was leaving.

"Maybe when I get back we can have a game of pool?" She asked, hoping to lessen the others anger.

"Sure, why don't you organise it and we can make it a tournament." Owen replied before getting up and walking back in to the living room. Tosh looked slightly saddened as Ianthe moved over and placed a hand on her shoulder before calling into Jack.

"We'll see ourselves out."

And that was just exactly what they did.

* * *

On Boxing Day it was just Jack and Ianto as the others all went home.

"Did you decorate your Christmas tree on your own this year Jack?" Ianto asked.

"Yes, I did. Do you like it?"

"I do. Apart from over there," Ianto said as he pointed to the location on the tree, "That red bauble really doesn't go with that yellow one."

"I'll remember that for next year Ianto," Jack replied before deciding to add something else, "Unless you are willing to help me next year?"

"Always, it's not like I have anything better to do is it, I mean we don't even have a Christmas tree."

"Your Dad couldn't get one this year then?" Jack asked.

"No, he just doesn't bother like he didn't for the past seven years."

"Why not?" Jack asked.

"Because he can't be bothered that exact reason."

"Well you are always welcome to share mine."

"I'll remember that for next year." Ianto replied as he snuggled closer to Jack to try and keep warm in the cold December air that still made the houses cold, despite the heating, brick work and insulation of the place.

* * *

Toshiko was finding the long drive tiring, even though she was doing nothing, but sitting in the back seat of a car. They were heading to London as Ianthe had insisted that they stop there first. Thomas stopped his car outside of a very tall tower that Toshiko recognised.

"Wasn't this tower destroyed?" She asked, climbing out of the car as Ianthe and Tom did. Tom locked the car behind him as he followed the other towards it. Ianthe pushed on the door to find it locked.

"You won't get in there," Toshiko replied, "No one's been in there since it was destroyed."

"They rebuilt it to make it fit in, but I don't think anyone even owns it anymore. I know that there were a few companies interested in moving into it with their work force, but they were all denied that opportunity." Tom added.

"Now that is where you are both wrong, because we still own it," She pulled out a key and unlocked the door, "I didn't think that I would ever say this, but thank you Milton for locking the door behind you."

The three of them walked in and Ianthe locked the door behind them, placing the key in Tosh's hand.

"Why are you giving this to me?" She asked, "I don't think that I'm meant to have it am I?"

"No, but one I trust you, two you may need to run and three I can't hold it and hold everything else that I need to hold."

"What else do you need to hold?" Tom asked slightly confused.

"This." Ianthe replied as she drew her gun and grabbed her torch from her belt, flicking its switch to turn it on before continuing to walk forward. She made her way down to where she and Greg had been when they first found Milton.

"Keep to the side of the wall and if I shout the word-" She paused to think of a suitable word that wouldn't be too noticeable as a code word for something, "Banana, then you run, okay?"

"Okay." Tosh replied.

"Banana?" Tom questioned.

Ianthe leant against the wall on the other side of the door and counted to three. On three she nodded to Tosh who then pulled the door open. Ianthe looked over her shoulder and saw two guards who were both looking utterly confused at the now open doorway. Neither of them looked to have weapons from the view that Ianthe had.

One of them – the one on the right – was older than the one on the left. Just by looking at them Ianthe could establish a good plan as well as which one would move first. The older one would move first having the more experience: the younger would be useless if stuck on his own.

The older (as predicted) made his way forward. Ianthe span round and shot him straight through the head. The younger one reached for weapon, but stopped when Ianthe fired another shot, not at him, but at the already dead man on the floor – the bullet went straight through his chest, where his heart would be, drawing blood still as his heart finished its final few beats.

The shot was enough to make him panic though and he didn't dare draw a single weapon. From where Toshiko and Tom where stood they had the perfect view point to all of this violent action.

"How many more of you here?" Ianthe asked as she stepped on step forward and pointed the gun and the guys chest in line with his heart.

"None."

"Honestly?"

"Yes."

Ianthe looked him up and down counting each weapon that he had on him, "Drop the gun, the pocket knife and the teaser." The younger did so, kicking all of them over to her. Ianthe at the same bent down and took the weapons from the older man.

"Tosh, Tom come and grab these." The pair walked in slowly and picked the weapons up off of the floor. Ianthe turned her attention back to the hired guard.

"Don't even think about lying to any of these questions or I will shoot you," Ianthe pre-warned him before she fired the first question at him, "Where's Milton gone?"

"Scotland."

"Did she take Greg with her?

"Yes."

"What about a Japanese woman, did she take her with her? And also how did she manage to get a hold of her?"

"Yes and she hired people to kidnap her."

"What is it that she wants?"

"Some kind of soniciky thing- I don't know I never understood it, I just needed the money."

"What for?"

"My younger brothers operation. He has cancer in one eye and-"

"You have a GPS tracking device that she gave you don't you?" She asked cutting him off, knowing that she didn't have time to hear all of this.

"Yes, she gives them to everyone to monitor them and see where they are and if they are where they are meant to be."

"Give it to me," The guy handed it over to her and Ianthe handed it to Tom before pulling out a cheque book, grabbing a pen from her pocket and writing on it before giving it to the guard, "Take this and pay for whatever it is that your brother needs and never work for Milton again, if you do then I'll arrest you."

* * *

Owen made his way home. It was late and dark now. He had spent Boxing Day walking around the city as his Mum still had her friends round. There was snow on the ground now and it was slowly falling from above him, covering his black leather jacket in white flecks. Owen shook them off as best as he could.

His phone beeped in his pocket and he sighed as he pulled it out to read the text. It was from Lucy, the girl that he had danced with at Rhys's Birthday party on Saturday. Owen put the phone away, not interested in replying to her.

Owen Harper knew when he had done something stupid and this was one of those times. How could he have just let Toshiko go like that?

His phone went off three more times on his way home. When he got home he took of his shoes and headed upstairs. He took his mobile out of his pocket and looked at the texts. Three were from Lucy and one was from Jack.

_Meet me and Ianto tomorrow on the Roald Dial Plass. Martha just texted me to say that she is going to visit for New Year._

Owen smiled slightly. He had always liked Martha, but she had moved to America three years ago. Although Martha was nice, she really wasn't his type and the young boy was aware that she too wanted to be a Doctor one day when she grew up and that was the only thing that really linked them.

Owen went to bed relatively early that evening and his main thoughts were hoping that Toshiko would be safe and would return to them happily with her Mother in tow.

But nothing was ever that simple.

* * *

Okay I will update again on Saturday. Thanks for reviewing, favouriting, alerting and of course reading.


	19. Chapter 19

Alright on to chapter nineteen, New Year was still something strange to write about in the middle of July.

* * *

School was all set to start again on Wednesday. It was Friday today, New Years Eve.

Martha ad visited for the week and had spent time comparing knowledge with Owen (although in the end it turned out as a small knowledge competition) which had ended yesterday evening since Martha had caught a plane early on Friday morning to return to America.

Jack and the group had all been invited to numerous parties for New Year by people from their school and thanks to Owen being 'in' with the popular crowd - as he called it - they had even been invited to a party of Harry Reginald Price's.

According to Owen, the guy had a massive swimming pool and a hot tub as well as a balcony and some quite rich parents. Owen had decided to go anyway as he had been hoping to take Toshiko with him. Rhys had then decided tag along with Owen and to bring Gwen with him.

Jack wasn't at all fussed for going, so he left it alone for a while and told Owen that he would text him later, allowing the final decision to be made by Ianto.

He had text Owen a few moments ago and now he placed his phone back into his pocket and looked at Ianto who was sat next to him on the sofa, starring aimlessly at the TV.

"You should lie down."

"I'm alright."

"That's not a very convincing lie." Ianto looked to Jack and studied his face carefully.

"Aren't you going to go to that party, I don't mind if you wanted to, I'll be alright here on my own."

"Honestly Ianto I don't want to go, I really don't mind staying here," Jack paused, "If there's something wrong Ianto then I want you to tell me."

"Why would you think that there was?" Ianto asked, wondering maybe if Jack had seen or heard something or even if he had let something slip, but then he thought back to the one time that he might have given Jack a clue and the older seemed to be thinking of the same moment.

"What about Saturday - almost two weeks ago now - you came here and broke down into tears, now Ianto that isn't like you at all, the only time I ever saw you like that is when you lost Lisa and probably when you lost your Mum, but I was away at that time."

Jack had regretted being in America when Ianto's Mum had died. He had phoned and Ianto had explained what he had been told. Of course Jack didn't know what Ianto did now and that reminded Ianto that he still had an Uncle to go back and visit.

Ianto thought over mentioning it to him, but decided in the end to leave it until he knew more about the situation.

"I'm just not feeling very well that's all Jack."

"I said that you should lie down." And that was where that conversation drew to and end as Jack laid Ianto down on the sofa and then moved over to the other and laying down himself. He flicked the TV on and then looked back to Ianto.

"So how long are we going to sit in silence for?" He asked and Ianto knew exactly what the question was meant to get at.

* * *

They had made it to Scotland by Sunday afternoon and Ianthe was proved right in her suspicions that Milton would have come to Scotland. Now, on New Year's Eve the three of them moved in on them with some small form of a plan. The only problem that they did have was that the dot that she was representing on the rewired (thanks to Toshiko) GPS was currently in the location of the base.

"Why go to an underground base?" Tom asked, "There is nothing special about an underground base."

"Hey, that crossed the line," Ianthe replied, "Besides you aren't even meant to know about it."

"Who am I going to tell, I mean I have no friends to tell," Toshiko and Ianthe turned their heads to look at him slightly strangely, so he quickly added, "None that would believe me I mean." He saw Ianthe roll her eyes again.

"So how do we get in?" Toshiko asked. Ianthe looked round to face her.

"You too have guns on you know, how do you think we get in?"

"Leave and not risk getting killed?" Thomas put in, however Toshiko seemed to have thought more logically.

"Surely if your line of work is as dangerous as you say then you would have a way in that only staff knew, a back up entrance in case of an emergency like this one." Ianthe smiled at her.

"That's exactly what we do have." Toshiko and Tommy had followed her carefully, avoiding the camera's that were easily locatable for her since she had helped Brenda to put them there.

To Toshiko it seemed to take ages walking through the underground tunnels that Ianthe was bringing them through. Eventually they came to the end and the tunnel opened into something else like a metal box.

"What is this?" Tosh asked.

"A special type of filing cabinet."

"What room is this in?" Tom asked.

"One of our archives, more precisely our one on sonic devices." Ianthe took her torch out and moved it around until it's light shined onto a slightly open switch board. She pulled the front panel off of it and flicked the second switch along, before then flicking the one to its left. The front of the cabinet opened and she stepped out. Tosh noticed the security camera in the corner.

"Won't that allow her to-"

"Already sorted it," Ianthe replied before opening a cabinet and grabbing a file from it and handing it to Toshiko to read, "Would you be able to build something like that?"

"Maybe on a small scale, but I really don't think that I'm that good."

"I think you are, Jack said that you are and I have a feeling that Milton thinks that you are too."

"I've never even seen anything like this."

"You're sure about that are you?" Toshiko nodded her reply, "Keep thinking on it."

The three of them made their way up to the top part of the base and Thomas looked for Milton or anyone in particular, but saw no one. Ianthe was the first to move, gun drawn, carefully looking around her. Tom followed nervously, hands shaking as he held the gun in front of him.

Toshiko did as she was told and made no movement at all, although she held the gun that Ianthe had taught her briefly how to use safely. Tom and Ianthe managed to keep each other backs covered long enough for Ianthe to get to Brenda's computer. The screens were open on pages that Ianthe had set up to detour people from looking for sonic or other dangerous devices that used similar harmful frequencies.

A gun shot was heard.

Ianthe spun around and Toshiko got ready to move if she need to do so. Tom held the gun, hands still shaking pointing in the direction of the stairs that led down to the cells if you went to the left, the main archives if you went to the right and the morgue if you went straight ahead.

Ianthe moved forward and lying on the floor was Milton, Mrs Harkness and Brenda were beside her. Thomas's shot had hit the woman in her right shoulder, nothing to drastic, but a bullet still with enough force to push her backwards.

"Are you two alright?" Ianthe asked directing her question at Brenda and Mrs Harkness.

"You took your time, Ianthe," Brenda replied as she moved back towards her computer, "Couldn't you find someone with a better shooting aim and range with you?"

"He would be a better shot if his hands didn't shake so much." Mrs Harkness replied before Ianthe could, although she wouldn't have for a minute anyway as she was studying the wound that Tom had dealt to Milton, while Mrs Harkness made so that she couldn't escape.

"He's not that bad, if his hands hadn't shook then he may have been a few centimetres off of the heart." She looked up at Mrs Harkness, who was eying her strangely and Ianthe knew why.

"Brenda, take her and lock her up, you should ask her what she knows, try to find out why she wanted a sonic manipulator in the first place then come back up." Brenda did as ordered. Mrs Harkness made her way over to her office and Ianthe followed.

"Wait!" Mrs Harkness said, Brenda stopped, "You come out from there." Toshiko moved out from where she had been stood and Mrs Harkness looked at Brenda, who was watching their new guest with the same shock and surprise as she had.

"Ianthe, who is this?" The team's leader asked.

"Toshiko Sato, daughter of Mrs Sato, Milton kidnapped her Mother and I couldn't talk her out of coming with me."

A few minutes later Tom and Toshiko were drinking coffee on the sofa, Brenda was questioning Milton and Ianthe was with Mrs Harkness.

"How's Jack?" Mrs Harkness asked motherly.

"He's good and we caught the people who really killed his Dad." Ianthe replied with a small smile.

"Good," She paused and changed her tone, "I'm assuming that girl's Mother is Japanese."

"Yeah, seen her?"

"No, Milton will know where she is, I'll get Brenda to ask. What about Greg?"

"She's got him." Ianthe replied, indicating with her head towards the room where Brenda and Milton were.

"And those two, I know about the girl, but who is the other one?"

"Police officer from Cardiff. He drove us round, gave me the files on Toshiko's Mother's case, everything. He was the same, couldn't be talked out of it."

"That's surprising considering the shaking hands and unsteady aim."

"Yeah, he's not the best is he."

"No." The pair smiled and laughed slightly before they heard Brenda's voice calling them."

* * *

Toshiko sat on the sofa next to Thomas and looked at him carefully, studying his still shaking hands.

"I thought that you said you were a police officer, you were wearing your uniform when I met you and everything."

"I am a police officer, I'm just not brilliant at it," He paused, "I fell out with a lot of the people on my team a little while ago after an incident with a gun dealer that's why I volunteered to work on Christmas Day, you know maybe get back some credit."

"I didn't think it worked that way?" Toshiko half asked.

"You would think that wouldn't you."

"So the long name?" Toshiko asked partly, because she was curious and partly because she felt that the subject needed changing.

"I was originally called Tommy, but I didn't think that was a brilliant name if you were joining the police force." Their conversation was interrupted by Brenda calling out to Ianthe and Mrs Harkness.

* * *

Ianthe was the first on out of the office, but Mrs Harkness followed her soon after, "Brenda what is it?" She asked.

"You are never going to believe this. She handed her mobile to Ianthe who put it up to her ear and listened to whatever it was saying and then she handed some papers to Mrs Harkness who started reading over them.

A few moments later Ianthe was glaring at Tom and Mrs Harkness was looking over in Milton's direction.

"Go and get them now before anything happens." She told Brenda handing the papers back to her, before walking into her office. Brenda moved to her computer desk and grabbed a few things. Mrs Harkness came back out of the office and chucked the car keys to Ianthe before walking back in and shutting the door.

Ianthe made her way down the stairs and continued glaring at Tom. She ended the call and handed Brenda her phone.

"Come on then you two, we're going back to Cardiff." Brenda told them and they all made their way outside. Only when they were getting into the car did Ianthe speak to Tom.

"Tom, tell me how two people who we put down to be locked away are allowed out onto the streets?"

"What?"

"They were released from hospital a little while ago and you're police department have only just located the paper work that Greg sorted out for it. Mickey Daniels and Tyler Llewellyn. Both of them were supposed to be going down for murder."

"What's the thing about them?" Toshiko asked from the back seat. Ianthe turned her head, so that she could face her.

"They killed Jack's Dad, knowing them, they'll go after him next." Ianthe informed her, turning back to face the front. Suddenly Toshiko looked worried. Brenda spoke next.

"He'll be alright, we have people out looking for them now, but I would be more worried about what Milton told me."

"Yeah, where's my Mother?" Toshiko asked.

"Cardiff with Greg, don't worry though they are alright, UNIT have them." Brenda replied.

"And who are UNIT?" Tosh asked.

"A part of the United Nations, you don't really need to know about it." Ianthe replied and Toshiko settled back into the seat for the drive, accidently she knocked a button with her had which brought up a computer right in front of her.

Brenda smiled a giggled slightly and Ianthe looked back over her shoulder with a smile, "Oh yeah feel free to use the computers, you two."

Ianthe turned to Brenda, "So Reset?"

"Goes on the market in three days, that's what the sonic manipulator was for, but it's still not safe anyone who takes it will almost defiantly die of heart problems within two days of taking it. The sonic manipulator would have increased that to a one day death rate time."

"Good God, why would wish to do that. Who is leading the project?" Ianthe asked.

"A doctor, professor Copp- someone, I don't know, I can't remember the name." Brenda told her.

"Do you mean Professor Aaron Copley, the physician and scientist?" Ianthe corrected.

"Yeah, that's it."

"Right, well at least we know where to go then." Ianthe replied.

* * *

On Monday, Jack felt slightly lonely with Ianto having gone home. The younger was a tougher nut to crack than Jack had first thought. But he had already decided that he was going to get there at some point and that he would find a way to convince Ianto to tell him what was going on.

On Wednesday he would return to school and that would be a different moment of time and he would find out everything.

* * *

Ianto left Jack's on Monday and by lunch time he was back at the police station. The same receptionist was there and she looked at him sweetly.

"Back to see you Uncle again then?" She asked recognising him.

"Yeah, I am." Ianto replied, slightly sadly, but also slightly happily. He had to wait a little bit longer this time as he hadn't planned this visit with them in advance, but he was back up their soon, sat down once again at a table across from his Uncle.

Ianto took a deep breath and his Uncle sat in silence, waiting for Ianto to say something first.

"Okay, tell me why. Tell me why you never even said anything, tell me why she faked her death! Please, Uncle I can't stop wondering why my own Mother wouldn't tell me, I have suffered the grief of thinking that she was dead for eight years, if she is alive I want to see her-"

His Uncle raised a hand at him and Ianto closed his mouth, the gesture shutting his Nephew up in a single second.

"You can see her. I'll help you arrange it."

"Really?" Ianto asked, "You would do that for me?"

"Yes of course, she is your Mother after all and you have a right to see her, now to answer the question of why she asked me to fake her death."

"Why, tell me why." Ianto replied desperately wanting to know.

"You have heard of a place called Providence Park, right."

"Yeah it's a psychiatric hospital."

"Well she's there at the moment," He paused, "She wasn't very well Ianto and you know your Dad's views on things like that and well you know how often he would hit her against things and-" He stopped speaking and looked at Ianto carefully.

"And?"

"Do you remember about three days before I told you that she dead you're Dad hit her head against the wall and she fought back to him for the first time ever."

"Yeah, how could I forget that."

"Well after that I was worried about her, so I took her to see a doctor, she was reluctant, but I managed to get her there in the end. She self harmed Ianto. They thought maybe, because of the abuse, but they also checked it out for a few other things as well and one thing that they did notice was that she also suffered from manic depression."

"Bipolar disorder." Ianto added, making the turn more medically correct.

"Yes and well you know what your Dad thought of things like that, he didn't keep that a secret, so we faked her death. I gave her a choice, Ianto, it was what she wanted to do and I'm her brother, I have only ever wanted to do what was right for her, I told her not to marry that man, but she couldn't be convinced."

"He does have a thing for hating things like that." Ianto couldn't even bring himself to call the man Dad anymore

"Look Ianto, I'll arrange for you to see her I promise, but can we just talk you know from family to family. You can fill me in on what I have missed." Ianto was silent for a moment before looking up at his Uncle firmly. The man was slightly worried by the look in Ianto's body tension and sudden change in motions.

"I want you out of here."

"Twenty years and possible life, Ianto remember?"

"But you obviously didn't do it!" Ianto got up from his seat and stood looking at the man, "You shouldn't be here and I know who should, we can put this right we can get you out."

Everything made sense up until that point, but then things went downhill and Ianto was mumbling random things. Dafydd stood up and walked around the table and grabbed his Nephew's shoulders and sitting him back down onto the chair before kneeling onto the floor.

"Ianto, clam down, you are right we can do that, but you need to calm down, please." Ianto stopped talking and looked to him before turning his head to face the chair where his Uncle had been sat. He placed his right elbow onto the table and put his head into his hand. Carefully his Uncle sat back down in his seat and watched his beloved Nephew carefully with a caring eye, just like his sister had looked at Ianto with.

"How long till that wrist is healed then?" He asked pointing to Ianto's wrist. Ianto looked down at it before back at his Uncle.

"I have an appointment next Saturday afternoon to look at it again and take more x-rays."

"It shouldn't have taken this long Ianto what were you-"

"What do you think."

"You're Dad," The question didn't even need to be asked, "Alright let's move away from that now, why don't we talk about a girlfriend, or your friends, or school if you feel like it." Ianto smiled slightly.

"How long do I have?"

"You tell me."

"Well it is a Monday, so he will go out drinking, he never spends Christmas or New Year with me anymore, so that's what he does."

"Well then, wait here for a second," His Uncle stood up and Ianto's eyes trailed him as the man walked over and talked to one of the guards, his Uncle was sat back down a moment later, "They say you can have until ten o clock, but they don't recommend that you walk home in the dark."

Ianto smiled, "I'll make sure to leave at a sensible time then, but they still gives us at least four hours." He replied after checking his mobile phone to see that it was only two o clock.

"So Ianto, lead the conversation."

"You know you said that you couldn't convince my Mum not to marry my Dad, because she loved him too much?"

"Yeah."

"How would you know if someone loved you like you loved them?" Ianto asked and soon after that set off a conversation that gave Ianto just that little bit more courage that he had needed to be willing to say something.

* * *

Toshiko had Brenda and Ianthe drop her off at Owen's house. She clambered out of the car and knocked on the door. Owen was the one to answer it.

"No for the fifth time I don't want your stupid double glazing, so just-" Owen looked up as he cut off his sentence, "Oh Tosh, hi, I thought that you were this guy who had knocked on my four times already today asking each time if I want the same bloody offer of double glazing and well you know, I don't and I thought that it was him again."

"That's alright, I don't mind."

"So why are you here Tosh, it's," Owen looked at his watch, "Almost seven o clock."

"Would you like a ride in a fancy car?" She asked before stepping to one side, so that Owen could see what she was talking about. Toshiko made her way back over to the car and Owen followed her. A moment later he was sat inside with a seat belt on, looking at the computer screen by Tosh, watching the TV on it and smiling: properly smiling.

They picked up Jack next and then Gwen, who told them not to disturb Rhys as he had injured his back playing rugby this morning. Jack called Ianto while they were in the car who explained to Jack that he was just making his way home. They picked him up as well.

When the group got out of the car they looked on the big building. Jack looked at the guns that Ianthe and Brenda were carrying.

"And this is there line of work," Jack explained, "Catching dangerous criminals."

"So what exactly are we all doing here?" Owen asked.

"Yeah I thought you said it was too dangerous for us to be involved with you." Gwen added.

"I think that you are all perfectly capable and you are Toshiko's friends, she may need you." Brenda replied answering there questions, although Ianthe didn't seem very sure.

"I don't think they should be here, I have a bad feeling about this." She told Brenda mainly, but the others heard her, most of them agreed, except for Owen and Jack, who were desperate for the action and Toshiko, who was too desperate to have her Mother back to care.

Tom stepped forward, "I agree and I have agreed with that all along."

"What are we even looking for?" Jack asked, "Or who rather?"

"Professor Aaron Copley." Ianthe replied. Owen looked up at that.

"I've read his books, I use them a lot, you know being interested in being a doctor and all that lot. I might use them in the future when I am at university."

A little while later they had been inside and back outside again. This time though they returned back out with Greg and Toshiko's Mother. Tosh had her arms wrapped around her Mother tightly and the older was returning the gesture. All had gone fine and Brenda was happy proving that to Ianthe.

Brenda was happy that she could lead a group of originally untrained people just like Ianthe could and she would defiantly make sure to mention that to Mrs Harkness. There was a clicking sound from behind them and they all turned to see the Professor pointing a gun at them.

Owen moved forward to stand in front of Tosh – who the gun was mainly being pointed at – and held his hands up. Ianthe drew her gun as did Brenda and even Tom did the same thing, although his hands still shook.

Greg was moving carefully in whatever direction he had to, doing what doctors did best, waiting for an injury to happen. One minute Owen was talking to the guy calmly trying to talk him into putting the gun down and then the next he had a bullet through his chest, laying on the floor, coughing up blood and his shirt quickly changing colour.

Ianthe shot him straight through the head and it was Tom surprisingly that managed to fire a shot straight through the guys heart.

Greg moved and grabbed his first aid kit setting it down on the floor. Brenda watched shocked that she had most likely caused this. Tosh and Jack knelt down next to him and everyone else remained stood up.

"Owen, stay with us!" Toshiko shouted while gripping onto Owen's hand which he had been waving about trying to grab hers while shouting her name and a lot of _'oh God's' _and _'I don't want to die's'_.

Jack was doing a similar thing.

"Owen, come on Owen." Jack watched carefully. Greg suddenly stopped working.

"I can't do this." For a moment everyone was so confused, but Ianthe remembered something that Greg had told her before about his younger brother.

"Yes you can," She told him, "Come on what would your brother say if you just gave up. You didn't give up on him and back then you couldn't have done all that much to help him, but now you can, so Greg do something!"

And Greg Thompson did do something and Toshiko held onto Owen for fear life.

Instructions were called out and a quickly slipping away Owen, concentrated on remembering every single one of them. For future reference of course.

Tosh and her Mother stayed at the hospital with Owen and everyone else went home. Ianthe was with Greg and Tom, both of whom she was congratulating. Brenda was sat in the back of their SUV nervously wondering what would happen.

They dropped of Jack first, followed by Gwen and then lastly Ianto before they drove back off to Scotland. The hospital had said that thanks to the quick action of them all on the site of the injury that Owen should be fine in a few weeks, but he would need time off of school to recover, which Toshiko had informed him off unsure whether he could hear her or not.

* * *

The next day, Ianto made his way downstairs and into the kitchen to see his Dad sat at the table with the newspaper from yesterday doing on of the crosswords.

"Alright?" He asked, Ianto looked slightly confused, but went along with it.

"I'm okay, I guess."

"Do you want a beer?" He asked, "They are in the fridge." He said plainly and then Ianto knew what the man was trying to get him to do. Which meant that he must know at least something -even if it was just something small.

"Oh, no thanks, I don't like beer."

"Suit yourself," There was silence, "What are you going to do today then?"

"I was just going to go out and-" Ianto through quickly for a cover, "Get some shopping, could I borrow some money?"

"Who needs money, just take it and go."

"That's shoplifting though." His Dad paused his chair back and folded up the paper, picking up his car keys at the same time.

"Look everyone does it and besides if you were really going shopping you would have your own money on you, so I wonder where you are going. But I suppose I'll see later won't I."

"I'm only going shopping for bread and milk, that doesn't cost much."

"Look me and my mates did it tones of times when we were children, your Mother even did it once when she hung out with us and Rhiannon and then you wonder why nothing you do is ever good enough." With that he left and Ianto felt terrible.

He was well aware that the whole conversation had been deliberate his Dad wanted him to be arrested and Ianto was determined not to play bate to it and rise up like a fish to catch a worm on a fishing hook.

But as the day wore on he found himself walking down the road. He intended to go to the prison and visit his Uncle, but he slipped up. He would get there anyway. The corner shop was a common shop for him and his Dad to shop in and he had even been in there with Toshiko once. Ianto picked up the type of beer that his Dad liked and then made his way out of the shop.

He had no clue what he was thinking, they caught him, held him back and called the police. And suddenly Ianto realised just how much control his Dad had over his mind after all of these years, he still rose to the bate.

He was still like a fish being caught on the fishing hook and reeled in.

* * *

Alright I will hopefully update again on Tuesday or Wednesday and in the next chapter there will be a lot of answers to recent reviews and more Jack and Ianto moments. So thanks for reviewing, alerting, favouriting and reading.


	20. Chapter 20

Alright so onto chapter twenty now, I hope that you like it.

* * *

The flashing blue strobe lights illuminated things in blue before moving past them once again. Ianto sat in the back of the police car looking at the floor of the car and his feet, scared to look out of the window in case he saw someone that he knew.

His Dad's new mobile number wouldn't be on the Police records, which was one thing that Ianto was glad for, however he was well aware that they would keep trying to contact the man and refuse to release him until they did so, or until they contacted another adult that was allowed to have the same power to get him released from the police's custody that he was currently being held in.

When he arrived at the slowly becoming familiar to him police station, he was offered one phone call to whoever he liked and Ianto could only think of one person that he would ever think to call in a situation like this one.

He wondered whether Jack would be home considering the fact that it was Tuesday and their last day of holiday before they returned to school on Wednesday or tomorrow as he could put it. Ianto breathed a sigh of relief when Jack did answer the phone.

"Hello?" He asked.

"Jack, hey, it's Ianto." He was well aware as to how weak his voice was currently sounding, but he tried to keep talking.

"Hey Ianto. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm okay, I just-" He broke off, took a deep breath and then continued, "I need you to help me." Ianto replied.

"Why? Where are you? Do you want me to come and meet you?" Jack asked quickly, that Ianto almost missed his reply, except he had been listening intently to try and insure that he wouldn't miss anything that the other said in reply.

"I'll explain later, I just need you to meet me somewhere, but you probably won't like it."

"Where, Ianto? Tell me where you are?" Jack asked desperately, the worry coming across in his voice quite clearly to the younger.

"You won't like it." Ianto repeated, panicking as to what Jack would think if he told him.

"Just tell me, I promise you now that I will come to wherever it is that you are okay, so will you tell me now, please?" Jack was pleading with him now and Ianto could somehow feel that Jack would keep his promise.

"Police station." He replied simply.

"On my way." And with that Jack hung up on him, no questions even asked as to why he was there.

* * *

Ianto was sat in a room with one of those rubbish police station cafeteria coffee's in the plastic cups in front of him. The room looked like a normal police interview room, but at the minute they had no permission to interview him.

It had been almost an hour since he had rung Jack, who he knew only lived half an hour away from the police station, forty five minutes away at most and it unnerved him even more to think that Jack might not actually keep the promise that he made to him and actually turn up in the end.

He had tapped his fingers on the table and looked around the room, as well as having drunk the rubbish standard coffee in the time that he had been sat alone, relatively unmoving, blinking in the silence that had fully engulfed the room and him along with it.

Ten minutes later, the door to the room opened and Ianto raised his head from looking at the floor to the now slightly opened door. Jack poked his head around it and then slid through before shutting the door behind him carefully and quietly, directing in his direction and then also giving Ianto a small smile he made his way over to the younger and pulled over one of the chairs from the back of the room.

Jack placed this beside Ianto's chair and sat down next to him. They sat in silence for a moment, each one thinking of what they could possibly say to the other in a moment like this. Ianto spoke first.

"I'm sorry for calling you here." His words seemed to tear through the silence, painfully.

"Don't worry about it." Jack replied. Ianto had to think again before he spoke.

"Do you know why I'm here?" He asked quietly, worry lacing the tone that his voice held.

"Yeah, they explained to me when I arrived here."

"Oh." Ianto said simply, knowing that the one simple word had made his voice waver slightly. Jack seemed to notice by a small turn of his head to face Ianto before he faced straight ahead again, however apart from that there was no sign to Ianto that he noticed.

"Why didn't you tell me over the phone?" Jack finally turned his head to face Ianto and looked the younger straight on

"I thought you wouldn't come if I told you that." Ianto replied watching Jack's face change carefully before the older laughed slightly.

"Never, would I not come to find you, Ianto, no matter what."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I think you're worth it." They both smiled and went silent again for a second before they both burst out laughing at Jack's last comment before becoming serious once again.

"What will happen to me now Jack?" Ianto asked.

"Come with me," Jack stood up and held out his hand to Ianto, "Let's go and find out shall we." Ianto looked up at Jack's face and then back down at his outstretched hand a few times carefully before he took the open hand and pulled himself up onto his feet

"Yeah." The pair made their way over to the door and Jack opened it before slipping his hand out of Ianto's and gesturing for the younger to leave before him. Ianto walked out of the door and then Jack followed, closing it behind him and then pointing over to the desk.

Ianto walked with him and Jack gave the receptionist a small smile and she smiled back.

"So can we just, you know, go now?" Jack asked hinting towards the door. The receptionist nodded.

"As long as you informed the young Mr Jones of his charges, then yes."

"Charges?" Ianto questioned looking to Jack for an explanation.

"It's only the first time that you are in trouble with the police and it was a relatively minor offence, so they deal with it outside the court system. So it will go on your criminal record –sorry that I couldn't change or stop that – but that is it."

"Couldn't stop-" Ianto stopped what he was saying an shook his head, deciding to come back to it later, "Hold on, I was told that I couldn't leave until my Dad was contacted though?"

"You can't, however Jack here came in and made some phone calls, so that he could clear it for you to leave here with him now," The officer put in. Ianto looked at her, his face still looking slightly confused, "Executive permission."

Jack put his arm around Ianto's shoulders and smiled at her, "I'd expect another phone call from them any time soon if I was you." He told her as he led Ianto away from the police reception and as if by pure coincidence, the phone rang.

* * *

Once they were outside, Ianto took a deep breath of the different air. Jack stood beside him, watching his actions as if he was going to run away from him or something like that. Eventually Jack spoke to him.

"Don't do that again, Ianto please, do you know how long it took to get them to agree to let you go without your Dad being there? I had to ring my Mum and everything."

"But I thought that you said-"

"I know. I remember what I told you when I came back from Scotland," He paused, "I had a three way conversation, I talked to Ianthe and she talked to my Mum and then relayed whatever she said back to me." Jack explained. Ianto stayed silent for a second before sighing slightly to himself.

"Thanks for that though, you didn't need to do it."

"Well I had a feeling that you might have needed some help getting out when they mentioned that they couldn't get a hold of your Dad."

"Yeah, well about that you see-" Jack cut his sentence off before he had even finished with a small smile thrown in as well. The older seemed to understand and maybe even see Ianto's discomfort on the subject.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to ask why they couldn't get ahold of him, whether you know why or not and nor am I going to ask why you even got arrested for shoplifting, because I did not ever imagine you being that sort of type, but there you go."

"Sorry." Ianto spoke simply.

"You don't have to apologise to me." Jack replied calmly as he started walking away from the police station. Ianto stood in the same place for a moment before moving forward and running slightly - at a slow pace - to catch up to Jack.

"Jack, can we not mention this to anyone else you know in school or just to anyone but us?"

"Of course, you now me Ianto, I don't say anything to anyone or anybody about you or anything concerning you without your permission in advance." But Jack didn't have to say anything to anybody as that was somebody else's job and that somebody else had stalked Jack all the way here.

John Hart smiled almost manically as moved into the daylight from the dark corner that he had hidden behind and watched the pair leave. He had something to talk about with a few people.

A few hundred people.

* * *

Toshiko sat beside Owen's hospital bed and looked at his hands and face as he lay there with his eyes shut, looking up towards the ceiling. Despite the bullet having hit quite a dangerous place he was apparently doing very well for someone his age with such an injury.

Not that – of course – the hospital saw cases like his often and since they didn't know the full story of how it had happened, Tosh wasn't quite sure how they could compare that to data from that sort of group.

She was watching his heart monitor when he almost scared the life out of her.

Something had suddenly grabbed her hand and pulled on it, pulling her whole boy further down towards him slightly. Tosh had almost slipped off of her chair and had also squealed rather embarrassingly now that she knew what it was that had grabbed her.

Who else would it have been? It could only ever have been Owen. Well Owen or one of the doctors or nurses, but they would almost defiantly have spoken to her before grabbing her.

She looked at Owen who was breathing deeply for a few moments before using her hand to help pull himself up. Tosh moved her other free hand to try and keep him down, however he took it as another gesture of help and grabbed a hold of that hand as well.

When he was sat up she looked him over and he stared back at her as if daring her to comment on the fact that he was sat up when he should be laying down and also giving him a lecture on jumping in the way of guns for her sake as she didn't like it or something, however no such comments came towards him, so he just sat there watching until she did

But she didn't say anything, he decided that he would do so to get the conversation between the pair of them started.

"Alright?" He asked putting on a smile as he directed his question to her.

Toshiko started at him for a minute in complete shock before finally saying, "I should be asking you that, Owen."

"I'm not stopping you from doing so, I hope." He replied trying to be at least slightly funny and not have a serious conversation for his first actual one back in the world of the living.

"No, but you should be resting, not talking to me nor should you be sat up in bed you should be lying back and relaxing. Maybe even dreaming about something nice" She informed him. Owen wanted to laugh at the last line, but instead just relied with:

"Yeah, cause that's really easy with knowing that you had a bullet fired through your chest." He replied in a mumbled tone, but in the silence of the plain, blank, white hospital room Toshiko still heard him.

Toshiko looked at him and tilted her head slightly to the right with a small sigh, "You know what I meant."

"Yeah, yeah you know that I did, I was just trying to have a laugh," He was lying and he could also tell that Toshiko had picked that up from him and was now still watching him carefully, "Has my Mum visited at all?" He asked, although he could pretty much say that he already knew what the answer to that would be and if he had money on him at that moment in time he would have bet someone ten quid that would say that he would be right.

"I went round to your house this morning to ask if she wanted to come and see you, but she said that she was too busy and that she would see you when you came home."

"Right, okay, that's fine, can I see a doctor now please?" Owen asked and Toshiko was quickly on her feet panicking that something disastrous may be wrong with Owen and that he might just suddenly die right here and now.

She left the room in a desperate rush and Owen wondered why. When she returned she was shocked to see Owen stood up and putting his Jacket on and then sitting back down on the bed to do his shoes. The group of doctors and nurses behind her did one of two things. They either left the room (which is what most of the doctors did) or moved over to tell Owen that he couldn't do this or that.

And that was what three of the nurses then tried and - may Toshiko say – failed to do.

"Excuse me Sir, I'm afraid you can't leave yet." The first told him trying to be as polite as possible, after all it was an important part of her job to be polite to the patients.

"Don't call me Sir and yes I'm afraid that I can leave, because I want to and I'm saying that I feel well enough to do so." Owen replied making his way past her, towards the door.

"Well then you have to let a doctor or one of us look at you to clarify that before you just walk out of here." The second tried as she moved to stand in his way, next to Tosh.

But once again Owen dismissed her comment and made one of his own to fire back at her.

"You are looking at me right now. Do I look like I need to be here?" As if to help exaggerate his point he made a wild gesture with his hands by flinging them out to the side before bringing them back in and hitting the palms of his hands against the top of his legs.

Toshiko sighed at the nurses failing attempts at getting Owen to sit back down as they were all just saying the wrong thing. The third nurse now moved in for her go at trying to stop Owen from leaving the hospital.

"You have to wait until a qualified doctor can discharge you." She told him firmly and desperately. Toshiko noticed how she stressed the word qualified as much as she possibly could, but even that failed to stop Owen from his mission to leave.

"I can discharge myself thank you very much." Owen replied before making his way to the doors that would lead out into the corridor. Toshiko shook her head before following calling out his name as she ran along the corridor and tried her best to try and catch up to him.

When Owen reached the reception desk on the ground floor he immediately asked to see the forms for him to discharge himself which were placed on the desk in front of him. Owen then picked up a pen and looked to the receptionist, looking her straight on in the face before smiling widely and then asking her:

"Where do you want me to sign this for you?"

* * *

The next morning saw Ianto moving around his room, locating his books for the first day back at school's five lessons. He was well aware that next week his History project on his family tree was due in (on which he had done nothing so far) and that he should be getting his wrist freed up this coming weekend.

Ianto put each book into his bag before zipping it up and placing it over his right shoulder before making his way down the stairs to the hall, throwing his bag onto the floor and then making his way towards and into the kitchen where he fetched himself a glass of water.

He then made his way into the lounge and picked up his mobile phone off of the sofa – where he had left it last night – to see that he had a new text message from Gwen. He opened the message and read it.

_Rhys, Owen and I are going into school early to play a football game with Dav and Banana, feel free to join us if you want to._

_Gwen x_

Ianto smiled at her thought of inviting him and sat down on the sofa before texting back a reply to her that politely declined her offer and told her that maybe another time he would do so.

Although the text did confuse him slightly as it mentioned that Owen would be with them and Ianto was sure that he could remember that Owen was in hospital since he was shot.

And Ianto was sure that he wasn't wrong as he could usually remember even the most obscure and unimportant of things that others forgot a little too easily, which helped to make him sure that he wouldn't forget such an important to remember thing.

Although he did wonder briefly whether he had dreamed about Owen getting shot or not, as he had dreamt of something like that before, except in that dream he had been the one that had shot Owen, not some meant to be very good professor and doctor who seemed to no longer live up to the impression or name that those titles presented him with.

Ianto recalled every dream that he ever had as it was a very rare occurrence that he ever did dream with all of the problems that he found himself presented with whenever he did try to go to sleep.

But no he was one hundred percent sure- more than that even - that he hadn't dreamt of Owen getting shot this time and that the whole thing had actually happened, however he decided to ask Tosh about it later, to see if there was anything that he had missed.

He sat in the living room until it was about time to meet Toshiko. When the clock changed to read that time he usually met her he got to his feet and once again picked up his bag, leaving his laptop in his bedroom still, even though he had originally planned to take it with him today to try and do some work at lunch.

Toshiko was just walking down the road towards him when Ianto reached the end of his drive way. He waited there for her and when she reached him he smiled and they started walking again.

"So how's Owen doing?" Ianto asked Toshiko, still slightly confused from the text that he had received from Gwen.

"He discharged himself from hospital yesterday afternoon. The staff weren't overly happy and tried to keep him there, even by trying to use force and they even tried to sedate him, since one of the nurses thought that he had gone slightly crazy, but in the end his doctor said to let him go and that as long as he followed instructions that he should be alright." Toshiko explained, pausing to catch her breath slightly. Ianto nodded his head and when she was ready, she continued.

"Although he has to go back every few days so that they can check that, one – he is actually following those orders and that two, he is actually healing."

"I bet they love him for that." Ianto replied.

"Yeah, it's a great start to his career as a doctor here in Cardiff."

"Just you wait for it Tosh, he'll become Doctor Harper and everyone there will tell the staff to not send patients his way as it would probably end up being something like, _'Oh yes your fine just a tumour in your stomach, go home and come back in three or four weeks when it presents signs of rupturing for me to send you home and then come back when you are almost dying so I can tell you what awaits you.'_" Ianto replied trying to follow the lines of something that they could imagine happening with Owen as a doctor from what Tosh had told him and from what she had seen, although Ianto was well aware that some of his knowledge used then could be wrong as he wasn't the one who wanted to be the doctor in the future.

Toshiko started laughing as they approached where they would usually meet Gwen and Rhys, but this time they both went straight on, Ianto not having to mention the text as Toshiko seemed to already know about it.

So Ianto guessed that Gwen had texted her this morning as well, either that or either Rhys or Owen had done so, but Gwen seemed to be the more likely option out of the three. Not that the other two wouldn't, but it was just that Gwen was a little more reliable with things like that.

"You are probably right Ianto. Remind me if I ever need a doctor to call anyone, but doctor Harper, I might not see another sun rise or sun set if I was to talk to Owen." The pair laughed, but they knew between the two of them that this conversation would go no further than their ears and that it was only a light hearted joke, not meant to cause any offence or harm to anyone.

They met up with Jack and made their way into school and over to where Gwen, Rhys, Owen and the others were on the netball courts, engrossed in their game of football.

Well Owen wasn't exactly playing football with them, but was instead sitting on the side lines of the netball courts with his laptop. He looked up to watch and see how the game was going at some points, however most of his attention was focussed onto the laptop that sat on his lap.

Rhys raised a hand up in the air and pointed to their arriving friends. Gwen looked over her shoulder, her brown hair flipping round with her head, moving from where it had been rested against her shoulder to rest against her back instead.

Everyone else who had been playing stopped doing so in order to let them through without them getting hit by the football or interrupting the game by walking through the middle of it while it was still being played.

One thing that Ianto noticed was that it was more than just Gwen, Rhys, Dav and Banana playing at his early time of morning.

"Alright mate?" Rhys asked as Ianto smiled at him and shook his hand. Tosh and Gwen hugged each other with smiles on their faces. Rhys and Jack shook hands as well before Rhys made the first comment.

"You guys are earlier this morning than usual." He said, Gwen was the one who replied to this comment.

"Probably, because they didn't have to wait for you."

"Oi!" He exclaimed.

"You know that I love you." Gwen smiled at him.

"Yeah, I do," Rhys replied with a smile back in Gwen's direction before turning his attention back to Ianto, Jack and Tosh, "By the way, first lesson has been reduced by fifthteen minutes, because of some of the buses running late."

"Oh, cool." Jack replied before moving into a small conversation with Rhys who promised that they would restart their football game in a moment.

While they talked, Ianto made his way over to see Owen, who probably shouldn't have been in school at all this morning, but either way he sat down on the floor beside him and gave him a smile which Owen didn't return. At first Ianto wondered if it was something that he had done, however Owen soon revealed it to be nothing that Ianto could have helped.

"Are you alright Owen?" Ianto asked curiously, wondering why he hadn't returned the smile.

"I am, but I don't think that you will be." He replied, solemnly.

"What do you mean by that?" Ianto asked, confused by what Owen was trying to say to him. Owen shuffled closer to Ianto and picked up his laptop placing it half on Ianto's lap and half on his own.

"When was the last time that you went on face book Ianto?" Owen asked. Ianto thought for a while before answering.

"Some time last week, I suppose. Why is it relevant, though Owen?" Ianto asked.

"I'll show you." Owen moved his keys over the keyboard and then clicked a few different buttons until he got to Ianto's face book page and then showed him a post that had been put up yesterday that Ianto could see already had just over ninety comments, the total number of comments stood at ninety three so far.

"This is why. Read it." Owen told him and Ianto did so. The post read:

_Official criminal in our school, was even arrested by the police and everything for shoplifting. Watch your property around Ianto Jones everyone._

Ianto looked at Owen once he had read it and Owen looked back at him, sympathetically before opening up the comments box and scrolling down to one in particular that had been put up by a friend of John Hart's called Bill.

_We should have guessed, he always looked suspicious. Probably tried to get lots of drink and drugs for those low down friends of his._

"Who posted this?" Ianto asked.

"John Hart." Owen replied, knowing that Ianto hadn't meant the individual comment, but the whole post.

"But, I don't get it how did he even know about it!" Ianto was worried now as he was sure that he had only told Jack, "Only Jack knew about this."

"Yeah, well most of the school knows about it now, Ianto." Owen replied before scrolling down to another comment and pointing at it on the screen, so that Ianto knew which one to read. Ianto looked to where Owen was pointing and read that one as well.

_He probably only did it so that he could get another girl friend, maybe a better one this time._

Owen pointed for Ianto to read further down the comment list.

_That Son of a b***h is such a moron._

Ianto could have read the rest of them fully, but by quickly skimming through them he decided that he didn't really want to do so, so he turned his head away and pushed the laptop back towards Owen.

"How, how could he have just found out about this, overnight as well?" Ianto asked.

"I don't know, I'm sorry mate," Owen paused, "Is it true though?" He asked not sure whether it was a good question to ask or not.

"Yes, Owen it is, but-" Owen interrupted Ianto before he could finish his explanation.

"Don't worry, you don't have to say anything else. But who would have told John about it Ianto?"

"Well until a few seconds ago, Owen, Jack was the only one to know about it. It was John who posted the comment and what connections does Jack have to John?"

"Ex-boyfriend." Owen replied

"Exactly, so I don't think that we even need to think about what the answer is to that question as I'm sure that we already know who it is."

"You aren't seriously thinking that it was Jack are you, Ianto?" Owen asked shocked that Ianto would suspect him of all people.

Ianto looked over in Jack's direction before getting to his feet and moving towards where Jack was still talking to Rhys. Owen called his name, but Ianto didn't answer him, so the other placed his laptop onto the stone floor and climbed to his feet to follow Ianto.

"Alright Ianto?" Jack asked as the younger approached them, stopping the conversation that he had been having with Rhys.

"Can I speak to you for a moment Jack, privately please?" Ianto asked.

"You could just tell me here, I'm sure it's not a secret."

"It was meant to be." Ianto replied angrily, his voice raising as he took a step closer to the older. Rhys was looking between them, completely confused as to what was going on.

"I'm sorry Ianto, but I'm not following you." Jack told him truthfully. Ianto lost it and threw his fist at Jack's face, knocking the older onto the floor. Gwen and Tosh were pulled out of their conversation and so was everyone else who had been playing football with them. Gwen and Tosh moved over to help Jack up and Owen tried to grab a hold of Ianto

Jack stood back up on his own and Owen reached for Ianto, who managed to slip away from his grip and get back over to where Jack was, blood slipping from his nose and lip.

"Ianto, could you at least tell me what I have done before you punch me again, because if there is a valid reason for this then I won't fight you, but if there isn't then I am not willing to take this."

"You know what you have done!"

"Ianto, I've done nothing," Jack replied, "At least I think I haven't."

"You're lying to me."

"No, Ianto, I'm not."

"Stop lying!"

"I'm not lying!" Ianto was silent for a moment before he punched Jack square in the chest with his still injured left hand and cried out in pain as Owen pulled him back away from the whole event and walked with him back to where they had been before, lowering him back down to sit onto the floor.

Jack breathed for a moment before heading over towards Ianto. Gwen, Tosh and Rhys moved to follow him, but Jack raised a hand as a stop and also added a shake of his head

"I need to speak to him alone, alright." The others nodded, understanding what Jack was talking about. Jack stopped to stand in front of Owen and Ianto before sitting down and looking at both of them.

"Tell me, please, because I don't think I have done anything and nor do I remember doing anything that could have possibly harmed you Ianto in any way." Jack said. Owen looked to Ianto who nodded. Owen picked up his blue laptop and handed it to Jack before shuffling round to be at an angle where he could point it out to Jack.

"Here, John's post." He pointed to it just like ha had done for Ianto. Jack read over the post and then looked to Ianto suddenly knowing why he had been so upset and distraught.

"Ianto, I have no clue how he knows about that, but I promise you that I didn't tell him, I haven't even spoken to him for ages," Jack paused, "Please, Ianto, please believe me."

Ianto looked at Jack carefully, but said nothing at all to him and looked at Owen who looked back to Jack and down at his laptop. He scrolled down and showed Jack the comments that had been posted.

Jack read each one carefully and looked to Ianto, who still said nothing and this time didn't even move to look at Jack's eyes. Owen took the laptop from Jack and handed it to Ianto.

"Five more comments, since you last looked." Ianto groaned and took the laptop before placing it carefully onto the ground beside him. Jack moved across to be closer to Ianto and pulled the younger towards him.

"Ianto you know that I wouldn't do that to you, I promised you." Jack told him and Ianto lowered his head, knowing that what Jack was saying was most likely – nine out of ten times – to be true. Owen watched the pair as Ianto broke down into tears.

"I'm sorry."

"Hey, it's alright, nothing's broken."

"It's not alright, none of it's alright." Ianto replied.

"We'll sort this, Ianto," Jack looked at Owen and then looked back down at Ianto, "We will sort this out Ianto, I promise you now."

* * *

Okay next update will be on Saturday, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, thanks for favouriting, alerting, reviewing and reading.


	21. Chapter 21

Okay on to chapter twenty one now, I hope you like it.

* * *

Ianto hadn't done much in his Spanish lesson today and yes he did regret that, but he was finding himself unable to focus on anything.

He went to his drama lesson, but used his wrist as a reason to not do it and just watched the others for an hour. At the end of drama he left with Gwen to find the others for break.

"You did really well today, Gwen." He told her with a smile.

"Really I thought that I had done terribly." She replied.

At break they all sat on the netball courts, Owen was a little bit more focused on his laptop, but the group were quickly becoming used to leave him out of their conversations for the meantime.

Ianto eventually disengaged himself from said conversation and moved to sit over with Owen, who looked at him once and then looked back at his laptop before sighing.

"You want to check your face book page?" He asked. Ianto nodded, "Here." Owen said as he passed the laptop to Ianto. Ianto took it with thanks.

"Thank you, Owen." Owen smiled at him.

"You're welcome, mate. Now come on, let's see this." Ianto logged onto face book and with Owen looking over his shoulder to see whatever Ianto did. They didn't have to go far to find anything unusual on Ianto's page as most of it was right at the top.

Ianto skimmed over it before groaning and handing the laptop back to Owen. Owen took the laptop and skimmed over the comments before typing one of his own while at the same time talking to Ianto.

"Ignore all of them. They have no clue what they are doing, because they are the ones saying those things about you when really they should be saying it about themselves or each other," Owen paused both talking and typing while he thought of two different things to say, "Just try not to let it bother you, okay."

"Yeah, but it does bother me, Owen." Ianto replied, watching as Owen looked to be watching something else or someone else that was walking past his line of sight.

"Here take this, I'll see you in English." Owen told him, handing him the laptop once again. Ianto's eye's followed Owen and watched as he made his way over to Jack and tapped the older on the shoulder before the two left together.

Once they were gone, Ianto looked down at the laptop to see what Owen had been typing before he had left. Ianto read the comment and smiled at what Owen had put. It read:

_Shut up all of you, Ianto is a better man that any of you will ever be and if you can't say this to someone's face then you are all cowards who are hiding behind technology and those LCD screen things._

* * *

Ianto, Tosh, Gwen and Rhys were in English for five minutes before Jack and Owen turned up. Both had split lips, Owen's nose was bleeding and Jack had a red cheek that looked strangely like it had been punched. The bottom of the skin just under his left eye was also turning a blackish colour.

When he sat down and started to get his English book out, Ianto spoke to him, "Where the hell did you and Owen go at break?" He asked, pausing for a moment, "And how did the pair of you get so bashed up?"

"It is a long story." Jack replied.

"Go on then, better get started now and then we might manage to finish it by the end of this lesson." Ianto told him.

"I'll explain after school."

"Right now we are going on to start reading _'Of Mice And Men' _today since you have to do it for GCSE." And so that was what they did for the whole lesson. At the end of it, Ianto handed Owen back his laptop before heading off to music. He noted the eyes that looked into his back as he walked away.

* * *

After school, Ianto went back to Jack's and begged him to tell him the story of how he had ended up with a split lip and a very small black eye.

"Me and Owen went after a few people and let's just say that at first it was a relatively even fight."

"You and Owen against how many?" Ianto asked.

"Seven." Jack replied.

"Seven?" Ianto rolled his eyes and then said, "Why did you say that it started off as a relatively fair fight, don't tell me it got worse."

"Well they had friends, five friends," Jack paused, "Not including John."

"Thirteen against one doesn't sound even close to relatively fair to me, Jack."

"To Owen it did."

"Then Owen needs to reorganise his counting skills." Jack laughed and looked towards his dining room.

"Hey, you said when you were better you would play the piano and guitar for me."

"I did, didn't I." Ianto replied, "Come on then, I'll play you the piano, but not the guitar, I don't think I can manage to play both, plus you don't have a guitar and I am not going home to get mine."

"I wasn't expecting you too," Jack replied as they went into the dining room, "So what are you going to play me then?" Jack asked as he moved two of the chairs from the table over to be by the piano.

"What do you want me to play you?" Ianto asked back.

"I don't know what you can and can't play though."

"Name me something and I'll tell you whether or not I can play it." Ianto told him. Jack thought for a moment as to what he might like Ianto to play for him.

"I know what about _'You do something to me' _by _Paul Weller_. Do you know that one or not?"

"Yeah I know it." Ianto replied before turning his attention to the piano. The next few minutes were filled with only the piano's sound as Ianto played one of Jack's favourite songs. When Ianto finished playing the song, Jack smiled at him and said:

"That was absolutely beautiful you know Ianto."

"Thank you, Jack."

"You know that you are going to have to play that piano for me again, by the way."

"I wouldn't complain about that," Ianto replied before asking another question, "Jack can I ask why you chose that song in particular if you don't mind?"

"Well of course you can, but I thought that you would have got it from the title." Jack answered. Ianto thought for a minute before he realised what Jack was trying to say to him.

"Oh, I've got it."

"No, I mean it. You do something to me, Ianto Jones." Jack replied with a smile and Ianto returned that exact smile. They stood for a moment in silence before Jack spoke again.

"Ianto, know this might sound stupid, especially if you aren't-"

"Aren't what, Jack?" Ianto asked when Jack stopped awkwardly.

"If you aren't you know. And if you aren't over Lisa yet then that's fine as well I just wanted to ask you so that I had an answer and-"

"Jack you are babbling now, so just say whatever it is, please."

"Will you be my boyfriend?" Jack asked quickly, so quickly that his words almost slurred together into one massive chain of nothing.

"Yes." Ianto replied equally as quickly, having already pre-empted the question when Jack started saying that this would sound stupid especially if Ianto wasn't, well gay, he supposed.

"Don't worry about offending me if you want to say no, because I really don't have a problem if you don't want to do that." Jack started.

"Jack, did you just hear me?"

"Because I mean we can just stay friends if you want to do that or we can never speak to each other again and I can bugger off somewhere else or we can just act like we never had this conversation and start talking about coffee. You like coffee, I like coffee. Your coffee is way better than the stupid shop coffee that you get and-"

"Jack, really please just shut up." Ianto told him, cutting off Jack's rambling about coffee.

"It's fine if you don't want to talk about coffee, we can talk about-" Jack looked around his house for anything that could be used for a good conversation.

"Listen to me," Jack looked at Ianto, straight in the eye and shut up, "You obviously didn't hear me as I said yes the first time."

"Yes, you said yes."

"Yes," Ianto replied, "I did." Jack was looking carefully at Ianto almost debating what to do next. So Ianto shuffled closer to him and then did the same thing again until their shoulders were almost touching.

That was when Jack moved and pulled Ianto into a hug and gently raised the youngers head, so that he could kiss him.

Ianto, despite already being quite tall, was still shorter than Jack, so he almost had to stand on his toes, but it was well worth it. Jack's hands were place just below Ianto's ribs and his were wrapped around Jack's back.

When the pair finally pulled away from each other, they stood staring at the other for a moment before Jack finally said something, although it was something that Ianto hadn't expected him to say.

"How much do you weight Ianto?" Jack asked.

"I don't know." Ianto replied truthfully.

"Well if you ask me, I would guess from what I just felt that you are relatively underweight by quite a bit," The older replied before looking back down at Ianto, who was biting his lip, "Hey if you want we can get pizza or I can attempt to - and attempt to very badly may I add – cook us pizza."

Ianto smiled, "I'll go for the second one."

"Fine, but you are helping me." Jack replied as he took Ianto's right hand and dragged him towards the kitchen. Ianto let himself be dragged, happy that he now had Jack for a boyfriend.

* * *

The next day seemed to follow a more downhill pattern. Ianto had met Tosh in the morning with a very unhappy looking face, although Toshiko said nothing about it, seeming to sense that it might not be the best thing to talk about.

So Ianto started a conversation with her about her Mum and Toshiko was happy to bring in points to the conversation especially about how she was going out with her mother for a meal soon.

Ianto had spent his lunch time on his laptop while sat on the netball courts. Toshiko and Gwen were working on some maths problems together. Jack and Rhys were having a debate on sports. Too anyone else it would look like Ianto was doing as he said he was: which would have been his History homework, but he knew that he was doing nothing of that sort.

He was on face book, again, which was usually a rare thing, although it was now becoming something that he would be desperate to check every five minutes as there would always be something new on there about him when he did and it was beginning to annoy him so much that it was driving him out of his mind.

He knew the source of it, but he couldn't get the confidence to say anything and he wasn't willing for Jack and Owen to do the same thing again as that had only resulted in them getting hurt.

During History they were given the option to continue working on their homework project so long as they had finished their classwork (which Ianto had) so he used his laptop for the last half of the lesson.

It got a lot worse than just the comments that had been on there before and Ianto couldn't even list all of the things that people had called him, but he could easily tell you that loser; bastard; son of a b***h, slut and f**ker were some of them.

He didn't sleep very well that night and spent most of it worrying about tomorrow and checking his face book page every ten to fifthteen minutes. Not that anyone was online at this time of night to write anything. He didn't bring his laptop with him to school on Friday, but instead left it on his bed in his room, trying to get over his new habit of constantly checking it for updates.

In art he was more than aware of the looks that John was giving him, but he desperately tried not to look over in the others direction.

At lunch time he headed to the library, needing to be alone for a while. On his way back from the said library at the end of lunch he ran into John who laughed and smirked.

"What?" Ianto asked.

"You haven't seen it have you?"

"Seen what?" Ianto asked curiously and also slightly worriedly.

"It doesn't matter." John replied, but he laughed a second later, not able to stop himself from doing so.

"No, really what is it?"

"Don't worry." John repeated. Ianto decided to change tactics.

"How did you find out?" John looked at him slightly confused, "About the shoplifting thing."

"Didn't Jack tell you?"

"It wasn't Jack who told you." Ianto replied simply.

"And you would trust Jack's words over mine then, Ianto."

"Any day," Ianto paused, "Why do you hate me, why are you so intent on ruining things between me and Jack and my other friends?"

"Do you seriously think that I like seeing you with my ex-boyfriend," John replied before pausing and looking at Ianto, "You are gay right, Ianto. I did get that right didn't I."

"What does it matter to you, even if I am, why do you care?"

"I just wondered anyway I have to be going to English and all that." And with that John walked away. Ianto stood still on the spot for a minute thinking before John returned.

"By the way, comment on face book, hilarious." John told him.

Ianto stood on the still on the spot as John made his way past him, smirking. When he had disappeared, Ianto's legs started moving on their own accord, powering along through the corridors even though they felt too weak to hold his weight up.

The lights of the hall illuminated him as he passed under them. Ianto left the school grounds and walked all of the way home. He unlocked the door and rushed up to his room. Once he was there he turned on his laptop and started to look through it all until he came across the comment that had been posted by John.

He read it and found himself breaking down so easily after only reading the first two lines. By the end of reading it all, Ianto found himself driven to a state of near hysteria. He remembered a time when he had seen his sister like this. He had stopped her from doing something that she would have regretted and she only tried to do that, because people were bullying her about her weight. He looked once again at his laptop and since he had his laptop open he decided that he might as well use that to leave his note.

After all everyone left a note of some form didn't they?

* * *

The bell rang and Jack was already leaving with Owen. They met Tosh, Gwen and Rhys at the gates that were at the back of the school and to anyone else they would have looked completely stupid.

"Do any of you know where Ianto is?" Jack asked as the group started walking away from the school.

"The last time that I saw him was at the end of French." Rhys replied.

"I saw him at the end of lunch I think coming in the right direction to have been leaving the library." Toshiko added. Jack stopped and the rest of the group stopped to.

"So you are sure that you saw him, Tosh?" Jack asked. Toshiko nodded and Jack frowned.

"So he will probably still be in school then wouldn't he?" Gwen suggested and asked.

"Yeah maybe he a reason for not being in science like a meeting or something with a teacher or someone else, I don't know." Rhys added.

"Come on Owen, let's look."

"Alright," Owen replied before turning to the others, "You guys go on, we'll see you all later, I don't think Jack will let up till he finds him." Tosh, Rhys and Gwen turned and continued to walk away while Owen and Jack headed back into school.

After looking around the whole school, Owen and Jack met back at the back gate and knew that there was no way that Ianto could still be here. When Jack had met Owen – who had finished searching earlier he had his laptop out and was sat on the floor.

"I swear that you are becoming addicted to that thing of yours Owen," He told him as he approached, "Come on then, up you get. Just because Ianto isn't here, don't think that I am giving up searching for him that easily."

"It's a wonder that I didn't do this before."

"Owen I really don't want to know about whom ever it is that you are trying to chat up this time. Now come on can we please-" Jack broke off and turned to face Owen, "Wait what did you not do before?"

"Recently all of those comments on Ianto's face book, I can't believe that we didn't think of it." Owen replied as Jack sat down next to him.

Owen handed the laptop to Jack who then logged on his face book. He noticed that according to the website he had a message. Jack clicked on it to see that it was a message from Ianto.

Jack opened it and read the message, knowing that Owen was reading it over his shoulder. As soon as Jack had finished reading it he almost chucked the laptop back at Owen before climbing to is feet and rushing off.

Owen grabbed his laptop before it hit the floor and jumped up to follow Jack.

"Where are we going?"

"Ianto's house, Owen." Jack replied, his mobile phone held against his ear as he listened to the dialling tone. He was desperately pleading for the phone to be answered. When it was, he brought the phone back down and tried again. When it wasn't answered the second time, he changed the number that he rang.

"Why what did the message say, I didn't manage to finish reading it." He replied as they ran down the road.

"Check your laptop then. I'm still logged on." Jack told him as he placed his phone to his ear and waited for an answer.

"Hello." Toshiko said as she answered her mobile.

"Toshiko, it's Jack. Look where are you?" He asked her down the phone.

"Getting ready to go out for dinner with my Mum, why do you ask? Did you find Ianto by the way?"

"That's way I'm ringing you, Toshiko. I'm really worried about Ianto, because he left me this private message on face book and he isn't answering his phone and-"

"Calm down, Jack, breathe in and then breathe out," Jack did as Toshiko told him, "Now tell me what is wrong Jack."

"I think that Ianto is going to try and kill himself." Jack desperately replied. Owen looked up at Jack at hearing this.

"Oh my God, Jack I'll meet you at his house." Toshiko replied before ending the call.

Jack and Owen set off at a sprint once he had ended the call, both of them budging their way past people who got into their way as they desperately tried to get to Ianto's as quickly as they could.

They had numerous comments thrown at them as they rushed by, Jack in the lead with his coat following out behind him and then Owen following behind him with his mobile phone up against his ear.

* * *

Toshiko had been getting ready to go out with her Mum for a dinner, since they hadn't managed to spend Christmas together. However one phone call from Jack changed all of that.

She chucked on a random jacket and ran down the stairs.

"Mum, I'm just popping out for a little bit." Toshiko told her Mum who was in the kitchen.

"But weren't we going to go out tonight for a meal?" She asked as her daughter moved about putting a pair of shoes on.

"I have to see a friend who might be in danger. Jack thinks that he might be going to kill himself and I don't want to lose him," Toshiko paused and took a deep breath, "Mum if I don't do this, I will always regret it."

Her Mum looked at her and nodded, "Go, I can see you later."

"Thank you." Toshiko said before she grabbed her door keys and rushed out of the house. She ran down the road as fast as she could manage. When she arrived she ran up to the front door and knocked on it. She received no answer and desperately started looking around while she tapped her phone against her fingers and bit her lip, lightly as she waited for Jack and Owen unsure of what she was supposed to do until they arrived.

* * *

Owen was breathing deeply as he ran, knowing that he had disobeyed the hospital's orders by doing this, but at the minute he didn't really care. They were almost at Ianto's now.

Owen had just gotten off of the phone to the hospital who were sending them an ambulance to Ianto's house as they spoke. Owen was panicking as to what state they would find the younger in as he picked up his speed again.

He was now running beside Jack and if he really tried he could have overtaken the older, but he wasn't going to push himself too much. They would be at Ianto's soon anyway as they had just turned the corner where the corner shop was.

As Ianto's house came into view they noticed Toshiko stood there - nervously from her outlook - as she paced up and down the empty drive way.

"Toshiko." Jack called as he arrived to stand beside her, Owen following suit.

"I can't get an answer," She told them, "Phone or door, he won't answer it or pick up the phone. What do we do?"

"We let ourselves in," Owen told her, "Now I'm suggesting that we go around the back and climb over the wall and then-"

"We don't need to do that," Jack told him as he turned a key in the lock and pushed the door open. Owen looked slightly shocked and Toshiko was just plain curious, "Ianto gave me a key the other night." Jack replied as he walked inside the house. Owen and Toshiko followed him in and once inside Jack took up the role of leaders, shouting some orders around between them.

"Right Owen you take downstairs, try the kitchen, see if there's anything out of place, even if he isn't in there."

"Right." Owen replied before diving off to check the downstairs rooms. Jack moved towards the stairs and gestured for Toshiko to go on up in front of him.

"Tosh take one side of the upper floor, check the attic if you have to."

"Alright." She said as she rushed up the stairs and turned left. Jack turned right towards Ianto's room.

"Ianto, Ianto." He called as he entered the room and looked around for anything that may give him a clue to where the younger (who he guessed he could now officially call his boyfriend) was.

"I'm going to check the attic!" Toshiko's voice called out to him before he heard her footsteps rushing up the stairs.

"Jack!" Owen called out and Jack rushed out of the room see what he wanted. Although he noted Ianto's open laptop loaded onto a face book page, but whose he did not see.

"What is it have you found him?"

"No, but I have found a missing knife and an empty box of Paracetamol that was on the counter top by the other knives."

"S***," Jack raised his voice as he heard Toshiko's footsteps returning - but just Toshiko's, "Ianto! Ianto!" He started to rush along the hallway to the other side when he heard a noise from the bathroom.

"Ianto?" He questioned as he opened the door. As soon as it was open he noticed Ianto's figure. The afternoon sun shone off of something that was held in his hand and Jack already had a theory as to what it could be. To add to that Ianto was shaking and looked relatively unbalanced and Jack was no doctor, but he could guess why the paracetamol box Owen had found had been empty.

"Ianto!" He shouted before running into the room and grabbing Ianto from behind.

"Let go of me!"

"No!" Jack reached the knife, but Ianto tried to keep it out of Jack's way. It was only then that Jack noticed the blood that ran down from the inside of Ianto's right wrist and the slowly turning red bandage on his other.

Toshiko rushed into the room and quietly screamed at the situation before trying to do her best to help Jack before it was too late, although she quickly released that her attempts were not doing very much, so she took a step back.

"Ianto, please let go!" Jack shouted as he grabbed a grip on the knife and tried to pull it from Ianto's grip once again. He succeeded in throwing it across the floor, receiving a small cur across his hand in the process. Ianto was now completely hysterical and Jack feared every move that Ianto made.

"Why did you do that?" Ianto shouted at him while questioning him at the same time. Ianto had now turned around, so that he was facing Jack and the older looked at him worriedly. Toshiko stood aimlessly beside Jack.

* * *

Owen had opened the front door once he had heard the shouting from upstairs and the approaching sirens. He ran up the stairs and rushed to where all of the shouting was coming from. He could hear footsteps coming from outside which could be one signal of the paramedic's arrival.

When he reached the bathroom he placed a hand on Toshiko's arm and pulled her back, so that her back was resting against the wall.

"Sit down, we've got this." Owen told her and Tosh did just that as she lowered herself to the floor, distraught at seeing her friend in such a predicament. He looked to Jack who seemed to understand this as he wrapped his arms around Ianto's chest carefully and lowered him to the ground, so that they were both sat onto the floor.

Owen moved over to the cupboard and pulled out some of the towels that were in there and then moved over to where Jack was holding Ianto. The paramedic's footsteps could be heard as they rushed up the stairs.

He knelt down and wrapped one of the towels around Ianto's non bandaged wrist as that one seemed to be bleeding out at a slower rate than the other one. Owen had struggled at first to grab Ianto's wrist as he had been throwing it about too much.

But eventually he did and moved over to talking instead and the words he spoke sent shivers down Jack's spine, made Toshiko pull her head up in shock and Owen swallow down the lump in his throat and look down to try and avoid looking at Ianto's tear covered face.

Although looking down was no better as his hands were slowly becoming red as he applied as much pressure as he could to the cut. Toshiko raised one fisted hand to up to her face to cover her mouth with the sides of her fingers as she swallowed the sickness that she was feeling and allowed silent tears to fall down her face.

Jack cried silently as he rubbed his hand up and down Ianto's arm trying to calm him while he repeated the same thing over and over, his eyes focussing on the knife that Jack had thrown into the opposite corner of the room.

"I want to die." Ianto repeated for what had to have been the third or fourth time and truthfully it made Jack panic for just how long Ianto had wanted that to happen and just how long he had been building up to this moment in time.

The paramedic's appeared at this point, but made no move to take Ianto away from Jack. They did however start unpacking bandages etcetera and radioing through things to the main ambulance base at St Helen's Hospital. One of them – a relatively young man probably about twenty five – knelt down next to Owen and grabbed a hold of Ianto's wrist and began to help him.

One thing that Jack wondered the whole time was why they didn't take Ianto from him while they bandaged his wrists and sorted them out so that they would last the journey to the hospital.

"Shh." Jack repeated to Ianto over and over again, battling his calm words against Ianto's dangerous and heart breaking ones. It took time, but eventually Ianto fell limp against his chest, his breaths coming deeply every so often as exhaustion, medicine and the whole suicide attempt had finally washed over him.

Now that Ianto was quiet it gave Jack time to think and look around at the state of Toshiko and Owen as the paramedics took Ianto from them.

Toshiko looked ready to be sick as her hand sat just below her throat with her thumb resting part way up her neck as she took deep breaths of air. Her eyes shut with her head leaning against the tiled bathroom wall.

Owen had now moved back and sat in the middle of the floor by Jack, watching the open doorway, sighing and looking down. Jack rose to his feet and moved out of the room following the paramedics. When he was outside he heard Tosh and Owen's footsteps following him and eventually moved to stand beside him.

He looked over at them and noticed their held hands before he looked back up at the ambulance and suddenly wondered about everything that would follow in the next upcoming days of Ianto's recovery.

He thought about how he had almost slipped through their fingers. How they had almost lost him forever. And how they now that to bring him back up from this.

* * *

Alright that was chapter twenty one. Strangely the easiest part to write was the end of this chapter, although I have no idea why, but I just seemed to have quite a few ideas on how to write that part.

Anyway thanks for favouriting, alerting, reviewing and reading.


	22. Chapter 22

Alright thank you for all of the reviews so far, but now on to chapter twenty two.

* * *

Saturday morning had seen the sun rise on the hospital and Jack standing silently at the side of Ianto's hospital bed listening to the beeping that filled the room in the near silence. Ianto turned his head to face where Jack was stood and blinked his eyes open. Jack gave him a light smile.

"Hey," He paused, "Welcome back."

Ianto's eyes were half shut and half open and he watched Jack through his half lidded eyes, "You alright?" Jack asked.

"Mmm, I feel tired." Ianto replied shifting his head a little.

"That would be the sedative starting to ware off," Jack replied placing a hand onto Ianto's arm, "And of course whatever you took before. I hope we were right in assuming it was paracetamol." Ianto groaned and blinked his eyes shut for a few seconds before opening them again.

Jack assumed that he had been right. Footsteps approached and a moment later Doctor John Smith walked into the room.

"Jack can I speak with you for a minute."

"Sure." He replied before making his way over to the doctor, leaving Ianto on his on in the room as the pair made their way into Doctor Smith's office, the doctor closing the door behind Jack as he started speaking.

"I've already spoken to his Dad, the man was here last night. According to the staff he left early this morning about three hours before you arrived."

"If you have already spoken to his Dad, why are you speaking to me as well?" Jack asked.

"Because you are his best friend I do believe and-" Jack felt almost pressured to interrupt.

"Actually I'm his boyfriend," Doctor John Smith looked at him carefully, "Boyfriend of about two and bit days. Since Wednesday basically."

"Well congratulations, I'm sure that you will make him happy, I did watch the two of you before when he was in here." The doctor replied and Jack smiled.

"I hope that I can do that." He told him.

"Right anyway, I gave his Dad the same information, but I don't think that he was really listening to me. So I thought that I would tell you as well, just to make sure that he defiantly gets what he needs to recover from this." John Smith told him as he sat down in a chair on one side of the desk in his office.

"Okay, go on then." Jack replied sitting down in another chair that was on the opposite side of the desk to the side that the doctor was sat on.

"Alright," The doctor pulled something out of one of his desk's draws, "You seem a little more reliable than his Dad, even though you are younger, but here is a leaflet about a teen support group that I run weekly on Thursday evenings." Jack took the leaflet and skimmed over it.

"We talk about bullying, relationships and other things. I think it could benefit him greatly and maybe avoid a second try at the same thing." Jack forced his head up.

"You think that he will try it again?" He asked the doctor that sat in front of him.

"I think that it is defiantly a possibility based on the information that we have. And of course you witnessed it for yourself."

"He kept saying that he wanted to die." Jack said, "It was horrible and the fact that he had already cut his wrists once – I mean it was only lightly, but he was going to do it again I could tell."

"Well you see Jack," Doctor John Smith started, "Many who attempt suicide once and fail do try again. On top of that about one in every one hundred will die after six failed attempts – the seventh attempt, would be their success."

"I don't think that Ianto would try quite that many times."

"You be surprised Jack at how many times people who really want to die, feel that they are nothing at all or that their life just isn't worth living any more with try their hand at suicide until they do succeed."

Jack looked downhearted, "What can I do to help him?" He asked, "I mean he was so set on wanting to die, what is there that I can do to change that view."

"You have to convince him Jack that you saving his life, was not a bad thing and that it was not only that, but that it was also the right thing."

"How do I do that?" Jack asked confused as he looked at the leaflet that he still held in his hands.

"You have to find out why he went to these lengths to try and get away from it all. I can help with part of that, but he will need his friends more than ever now.

"I get it. We have to help him to get past this."

"Yes, Jack you do."

"What about school, I'm sure part of this was caused by some of the things that have been on face book lately, but surely that alone wouldn't have made Ianto want to do that surely."

"Then we need to get to the bottom of it don't we, because whatever made him do it, he knew what he was doing and if you hadn't have stopped him then he would definitely be dead by now." The doctor told him and Jack swallowed the lump that had built up in his throat.

"What about going to school?" Jack asked.

"Well I told his Dad to give him at least a week. Ianto can go home tomorrow morning provided that he is kept under supervision for a while until it's relatively certain that he won't try it again."

"And when would that sort of time be?" Jack asked.

"That all depends on just how deep the problem actually goes. It could be as short as a few months or a little over a year, it's completely depend on his mental state."

"Would now be a good time to input anything else that I know?" Jack asked, knowing that my already inputting the face book comment that he may have found some common base ground on which to work from.

"Yes Jack," Doctor John Smith told him, "Now would be the best time to say anything that you know relevant to Ianto's suicide or the lead up to it now."

"Well on Wednesday I noticed that he just seemed really, really, underweight." John Smith sighed.

"Alright. Look see if you can get him to go to that group that I run and we can see if we can discuss this and get to the bottom of it."

"Alright." Jack replied as he stood up and left the room deciding to return and see Ianto.

* * *

Owen wasn't really watching the TV when his Mum entered their living room at about one o clock. She sat down and said nothing for a moment and Owen was fine to ignore her.

"I have friends coming round, so I need you to get out of my house."

"Our house." Owen mumbled, not making any move to get up and go anywhere.

"Excuse me, I was speaking to you, you need to leave this house now, I don't care where you go, just go!"

"I'll go to my room then." Owen replied as he stood up, the remote to the TV still held in his hand.

"No, you will go out of the house and not come back until about nine o clock," She told him, "You have to be out of the house."

"That's right isn't it, I always have to be out of the house when you invite friends around. What about me. I can't invite my friends around, but be fair if I did then I would have every right to say to you that you have to get out of the house and leave me here alone with my friends, because that might just make it fair." Owen paused for a moment to catch his breath.

"It's always about you isn't it, you get your way and that makes everything completely, perfectly and utterly fine, but what about me! You never ask when I come home from school or from seeing my friends, whether I'm alright, but instead you just blab on about you!"

His Mum was still silent so he continued on.

"One of my best friends even tried to commit suicide yesterday and do you know what it felt like to see that happen. What it felt like to see him almost succeed in taking his own life!" He paused, but only for a brief second, "But no you wouldn't know would you, because you never even bothered to ask me!"

Owen threw his hands up in the air before he left the room, the remote for the TV flew into the screen, chipping it slightly. His fingers grabbed his door keys and he was gone in a flash.

* * *

Jack was back in Ianto's room watching as the younger dipped in and out of a conscious state and an unconscious one in a matter of minutes. When Ianto finally woke up and remained conscious for a few minutes, Jack finally spoke.

"Hey, we need to talk."

"Hmm." Ianto replied, but he didn't really seem focussed on using too many words at this moment in time, however that was fine as Jack was more than happy to do the talking.

"You can tell me anything you no. You can tell me why you tried to do that." He told the younger, Ianto shook his head.

"I can't." He said simply, looking away from Jack's line of eye sight.

"Then at least tell me how much paracetamol you took, so that the hospital don't overdose you further or mix things up by giving you something that will conflict it."

Ianto was silent for a moment. He looked up at the ceiling and then said, "Half a pack. Approximately anything from seven to nine." Jack nodded.

"Thank you," Silence fell between the pair of them and Jack decided that now was the chance to get closer to Ianto, "Any family that you want to come and see you? I could call them and let them know, ask them to come in a pay you a visit as soon as they could."

"No I don't have anyone else, but my Dad." Ianto replied.

"Are you sure, because-" Ianto cut across him.

"I think I would know my own family well enough Jack and if there was any of them that I wanted to see then I would let you know."

"Come on you have to have more family than just you're Dad." Jack said.

"I don't." Ianto pushed.

"But you can tell me-"

"I can't." Ianto said again the end of his sentence dropping as his eyes slipped closed and open again a few times.

"Please Ianto, tell me." Jack said desperately, trying to keep Ianto awake for as long as he could until he had gotten to the bottom of his life of questions. Ianto said nothing, but just shut his eyes and looked away from the older who sighed. Jack climbed to his feet and left the room.

Jack then took a taxi from the hospital to Toshiko's house and knocked on the door until she answered. Tosh looked at him with that same look that she had worn yesterday. She breathed in a put on her best attempt at a smile.

"Come in." Jack made his way inside and they headed up to Toshiko's room. Jack was slightly surprised to see her computer and laptops were not actually turned on at this moment in time.

"Toshiko I need to ask a favour of you," He looked over at her laptop, "You will probably need that to do it as well."

"What is it Jack?" Tosh narrowed her eyes slightly and frowned at the question, "It is not a dangerous favour is it?"

"It's to help Ianto." Jack replied and that was all he had to say before Toshiko had moved over to her laptop and was already clicking keys, so fast that Jack could barely even catch it.

* * *

At ten o clock later that night, Toshiko made her way down the stairs, yawning as she pulled her dressing gown tighter around herself. Her Mother called something out to her and Toshiko sighed and then called back.

"I'll handle it Mum. I was awake anyway. Just rest okay." She told her Mother as she reached the bottom. She carefully opened the front door and peered around it and was surprised when she saw Owen stood there with a pizza box.

"Hi." He greeted. Toshiko opened the door wider, so that she could see him fully, placing one hand on the outside of the door and one of the door's edge, her body placed against the other side of the door.

"Owen what are you doing here?" She asked, "Especially at this time of night, you woke my Mum up as well, don't you think before you come knocking on people's doors?"

"I need somewhere to stay tonight. My Mum kicked me out earlier, because she had friends coming round and we sort of fell out," Toshiko looked at him carefully, "I just thought that I could rely on you, but if not its fine." Owen finished as he turned to walk away.

Toshiko watched him carefully and he had only taken about six steps when she called him back, "Come on then." Owen stopped walking and turned around to face her, confused.

"Come on then what?"

"Well you aren't going to let that pizza go cold are you?" She asked, "I can make you coffee to go with it if you really want me too."

"Coffee to go, now there's a generous offer Tosh." Owen replied as if she had been joking.

"I was serious Owen. We can sit on the sofa and talk if you want to?" She offered. Owen looked at her and after a moment smiled.

"Alright then."

* * *

Ianto lay in the hospital bed aware of the bandages that covered his wrists as he tried he best to look completely out of it, while at the same time wishing that he actually could be. For at this moment in time would of course be the one that he would be wide awake for, although it was probably the worst of the whole Saturday.

He wasn't aware of course (because he had been completely out of it then) that his Dad had visited this morning as well, but even that was probably only to look like the good parent that he could act out so well.

But Ianto hoped that with his new relationship with Jack that something would change and the act that had been held for so long would crumble and break into thousands of little pieces, exposing what Ianto truly knew his Dad to be like.

Because it was either that or he would break first, because one of them had too.

One of them had to give way first, one of them had to snap, lose it, break whatever you wanted to say, one of them had to.

"Son, it's me. It's your Dad." The man started to say. Ianto listened and breathed, but made no movement to try and show that he was still out of it.

"I have already spoken to that nice doctor of yours and he said that I can take you home tomorrow morning. I can't believe you did this son." He placed a hand on Ianto's arm where Jack's had been earlier and Ianto tried to resist the urge and the fact that his mind was telling him to flinch away from the touch.

"Please wake up."

The same touch which then moved up towards his face and that was when Ianto did flinch. He then tried to stay silent, but he knew it was too late to do that.

"Wake up Ianto, because I know that you are." Ianto reluctantly blinked his eyes open and looked at his Dad.

"Alright Son?" The man asked.

"I would be."

"You know you haven't been talking to me lately."

"Maybe that is, because I don't want to talk you."

"Well what if I," He grabbed one of Ianto's wrists, "Wanted to talk to you."

Doctor John Smith chose that moment to walk in and what would you know his Dad was able to quickly change the grabbing of his wrist, into a hold of the hand.

"By the way I forgot to mention that for the next two days you will unable to give Ianto any painkillers no matter how much he begs you, because of how much paracetamol he took. Okay?"

"Yes thank you doctor, I will make sure of that." His Dad replied. Doctor Smith left the room with a small smile.

"I'll see you tomorrow Ianto be ready to leave." The man said to his son slamming his once fractured, but now healed left wrist down onto the side of the bed. It hurt briefly when it landed at an odd angle.

Ianto lay his head back against the pillow and shut his eyes. That night he dreamed for about an hour before he woke up and although he woke up before the dream ended, it had been very nice to begin with.

* * *

Tosh made her way down the stairs for the second time that night and entered the living room where Owen was sleeping on the sofa with a blanket pulled over him and an empty pizza box and coffee cup on the floor.

She looked down at the floor and when she looked back up she noticed Owen staring at her.

"What?" He asked, slightly confused as to why she was here. He yawned a moment later and then stretched, "What are you doing down here? Aren't you supposed to be sleeping?"

"Shouldn't you be as well though?" Tosh asked.

"Ah yes I should, but you see I have special alien senses that tell me when people need a hug." He told her with a smile. Toshiko smiled as well and moved over to sit on the edge of the sofa as Owen wrapped his arms around her.

"What's wrong?"

"I can't sleep."

"Why?"

"I keep thinking about yesterday and I know that we did, but my mind keeps thinking of us being minutes later and Ianto being-"

"Dead." Owen filled in the left over gap.

"Yeah," Tosh mumbled, "And it's one of the worst things that you could ever imagine. He's my friend Owen."

"Mine too Tosh."

"Then you understand Owen, what it's like to not be able to stop thinking about the what if possibilities."

"Yes, I do, Tosh. Really I do."

* * *

On Sunday morning Jack arrived outside of the Cardiff prison. He walked inside and looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings, with him having never been in there before he felt almost out of his place, almost.

"Can I help you?" The receptionist asked and Jack realised that he must have spaced out: even if it was only for a second.

"Yeah, um I'm here to see a man called Dafydd Lewis." Jack told her, sure that his pronunciation of the Welsh name had been wrong. The receptionist (who was actually Welsh) giggled slightly.

"Don't speak Welsh then do we." She said and Jack smiled.

"No, I don't sorry, I can spell it hoe the Welsh do if you need me to," He told her, "That is if you can't understand what I mean from my terrible Welsh pronunciation."

"It's alright I know what you mean," She replied, "Are you related to a Ianto Jones by any chance?" She asked curiously, eying him strangely.

"No I'm not, if I was then my Welsh would be amazing."

"Okay. I'm sorry do you mind if I ask you why you are here to see his Uncle? I mean it's just that he usually comes to see him, himself you know. So I just wondered if there was a reason why."

"Ianto is not very well and asked me to visit him on his behalf." Jack replied, hoping that they would let him speak to the only man that may have some chance of telling him anything helpful.

"Go on then, but I can't give you too long since you are not his direct family." The receptionist told him before she started pressing numerous keys and her computer and reached out to grab her portable radio.

Jack sighed, more with relief than annoyance and replied, "That's fine, I don't think I will need to be here for too long."

Eventually Jack finally met the man in question of being Ianto's Uncle.

Dafydd Lewis was playing solitaire when the prison staff told him that he had a visitor. He walked happily through the corridors until he reached the visitors room, although he was surprised to not see Ianto. The staff pointed him over towards a boy around Ianto's age, probably a little bit taller and seemed to like wearing an army or something to do with the military styled coat.

"I'm sorry," Dafydd started, "Do I know you?" He asked.

"No, you have not. I'm Jack Harkness, I'm a friend of Ianto Jones. I believe that he's your Nephew." Jack said. Dafydd nodded and sat down.

"Yes he is," The man paused and looked like he had just realised something, "So you are the one that he was speaking to me about." Jack just looked confused.

"Anyway why are you here to see me? Is there a problem or something?"

"Sort of you see he just tried to commit suicide." Jack told him.

"What, well I have to see him."

"You can't though can you?" Jack asked, "I mean being in here, they wouldn't let you out would they?"

"They would if I had his Dad's permission."

"Well he'll do that surely, you are Ianto's family."

Dafydd laughed, "No he would never sign to allow me out of here, even if it was for just a few hours."

"Why not?" Jack asked confused.

"Have you ever met his Dad, Jack I believe it was?"

"Yes I have."

"Did you trust him?" The man asked the younger.

"He seemed a nice enough ma-" Jack didn't get the time to finish.

"That wasn't my question, did you trust him?" Dafydd asked again.

Jack remained silent for a moment before he answered the question, "No. No I didn't."

"Good."

"Look – I'm sorry I can't pronounce your name, I don't speak Welsh-"

"Then call me David. It's the English equivalent to the Welsh."

"Alright then David. I am extremely confused, so can you clear a few things up for me?" Jack asked.

"Fine. Has Ianto ever told you anything about me?"

"No."

"Alright, anything about Rhiannon then?" David asked.

"His sister, yes." Jack replied.

"How much?"

"Not an awful lot to be honest, David."

"Well that car accident that she was in, it wasn't an accident." He informed him.

"Ianto said that that car accident was his fault though." Jack replied.

"Ianto's fault? Never. It was nothing to do with him. Basically Jack I was blamed for that car crash. People seriously believed that I had planned that whole thing to murder her. That I had wanted to murder my own niece! Why would I want to do that Jack?"

"You wouldn't not unless you wanted to really get locked up." Jack replied.

"Exactly. Now this suicide thing that you mentioned, please tell me more."

"Ianto took a lot of paracetamol and then tried cutting his own wrists," Dafydd looked completely shocked, "It's alright we stopped him. Me, Toshiko and Owen, we did it, we stopped him."

"I should probably mention this to someone else other than just him," Dafydd told Jack, "He already knows, but-"

"But what?" Jack asked. Dafydd sighed before pulling his head up and asking Jack yet another question.

"How well does Ianto know you Jack Harkness?"

"Well I'm his boyfriend now. Since Wednesday." Jack replied with a smile. Dafydd smiled back.

"At last. The conversation was long enough to make you at least hope for the pair of you."

"What he talked to you about me and him?" Jack asked, slightly confused that Ianto would have opened up about such a relationship to a man that (family or not) was in prison.

"Yes he did and I must say congratulations to you and I will do the same to Ianto when I next see him."

"What were you going to say before that though?"

"Seeing as you are his boyfriend, he probably trusts you. He told me that he did at least, so I suppose I should to," He paused, "His Mum, she is still alive. She's still in Cardiff and she's alive."

"What did Ianto say when you told him?" Jack asked.

"He left and went somewhere, I believe he was quite upset."

"He came to me when he was really upset once. He didn't explain why, but we just hugged each other and he cried while I held him." Dafydd nodded approvingly.

"He needs someone like that. Ianto can't be left alone Jack. I feared for him before when they locked me up, now he tries his hand at suicide and I fear for him even more."

"So what do you want me to do?" Jack asked.

"Stay with him Jack, just stay with him please."

"I will." Jack replied.

"Promise me."

"I promise, I won't leave him."

"By the way when he is better Jack," Dafydd started, "Could you bring him to see me?"

"Sure I will."

"Thank you," Dafydd replied. Jack stood up and moved to leave the room when the man called out to him, "By the way Jack, don't trust his Dad and keep him out of the way of anything that could harm him, because he will Jack."

"I'll remember that." Jack said as he left.

* * *

The next morning Jack headed round to Toshiko's and was surprised to see that Owen was the one to open the door.

"Alright mate?" Owen asked before turning around to face inside of the house, "Toshiko, Jack's here!" He called up to her.

"Yeah I'm alright thanks Owen," Jack replied knowing that Owen was talking in a Ianto sense rather than a happy or sad, ill or well sense, "What about you?"

"Yeah I'm doing alright too thanks." Owen replied.

"And Tosh?" Jack questioned.

"Not as good, but she will be alright in the end, I think she just needs to see Ianto recovered and back at school in a well state and not bleeding red from his wrists every few seconds."

"Can I ask why you are here?" Jack asked carefully.

"I needed somewhere to stay on Saturday evening."

"Argument with your Mum?"

"Yeah," Owen confirmed, "But anyway I stayed with Tosh and then I took her out yesterday into the shops to do some shopping in the sales and then went back to my house to get my stuff for school and then I came back here and stayed for the night again."

"That's good as long as you and Tosh are resolving things."

"What?" Owen asked slightly confused.

"I saw you holding hands on Friday after well you know."

"Oh yeah, well you know what they say. There are just things, events that happen that bring people closer together." Owen replied with a small smile as he disappeared for a moment to grab his rucksack and PE kit before moving to stand just outside the door with Jack.

"Or further apart." Jack added in a mumbled tone.

Toshiko rushed down the stairs with her bags and called a goodbye to her Mum. She joined Jack and Owen outside after exiting the house and then shutting the door behind them. They were walking along the road when Tosh first spoke.

"I want to pop in a see Ianto this morning," She told them, watching as their glares came to look at her, "It's alright, I've already text him and he said that I could."

When they reached Ianto's, Tosh knocked on the door.

"He had better answer it this time." Owen said although he shut up when Jack turned to look at him, sensing that he may have been straying onto discussable territory. Ianto did, as Owen had wanted, answer the door this time and was embraced by Tosh the minute that he did.

"You really scared me," She said when she pulled back, "Don't scare me like that again."

"I won't." Ianto told her in a quiet, light toned voice, although Jack could see that the waver in his voice was because Ianto wasn't exactly sure of that himself and Jack was more than aware of what Doctor Smith had told him about suicide victims attempting the same thing again.

Owen extended a hand for Ianto to shake which he did, all be it slightly awkwardly, but he did, "I'll see you later in the week mate."

"You'll see me before then, because one you are here right now and two I'm coming to school."

"Whoa, Doctor Smith said that he told your Dad that you had to stay off school for a while."

"I know, but I can't." Ianto replied and Jack wondered why. Ianto stepped out of the house and shut the door. He – unlike them – only carried one bag. His PE kit still wouldn't be needed as there was no way that he would be doing PE again just yet.

"Well we had better get moving or we will end up being late and I don't know about you, but I don't like being late." Toshiko said.

"I can't be," Owen started as they walked down the drive, "If I'm late one more time then I am in detention at lunch time."

When they met Gwen and Rhys the conversation accelerated quickly and soon they were going through the subject of films. Gwen and Rhys had both been informed of Ianto's suicide attempt and both of them had agreed to say nothing.

Although the bandages were a bit of a small give away, but Ianto was doing a good job of concealing them from peoples direct eye view. When they walked into school, Jack's eyes noticed John. His ex-boyfriend smirked in his direction and Jack moved to his left, planning to dive straight on him right now.

It was Ianto's small and feeble hand on his arm that made him stop what he had planned to do. Ianto looked at him slightly sadly and shook his head, a small sign that John wasn't worth it. Jack bit his teeth together before sighing and looking over at John, raising a fist as a sign that he would get him later.

John just kept smirking.

Them Jack remembered that the hand Ianto had just placed on his arm was the first contact that they had had since before the whole suicide thing.

"I don't understand Ianto, I thought things were looking good between the two of us?"

"They are, but there are just a few things that we haven't said," Ianto said, before changing the way that he had ended that last sentence, "Or things that I haven't told you."

"But would you?"

"Yes." Ianto replied, "I mean yes I think that I would." Ianto held out a hand for Jack to shake, but the older ignored the hand and instead put a hand on Ianto's shoulder and pulled him close, holding his hands around the younger, one around the back of his neck and one on his back.

Ianto wrapped his arms around the older except both of his went around and ended up placed on Jack's back. Jack carefully shifted his weight from foot to foot, rocking them slightly. Owen stopped walking and turned around to watch the pair.

Rhys was too busy taking to Dav, but Gwen and Tosh stopped when Owen did and watched the pair just as contently as Owen was. Although Owen seemed slightly shocked.

Jack pulled his hands away and moved both, so that they had a careful placing on the back of Ianto's neck and the left hand side of Ianto's neck. Ianto's hand stayed where they had been and Jack tilted his head slightly to reach Ianto's lips.

That was when Tosh decided that Owen was shocked at the pair, because that was when he dropped his PE kit bag onto the floor and his mouth went wider agape than it already had been.

Eventually Jack and Ianto parted and Jack looked at Owen and smiled. Gwen smiled as well and Toshiko placed a hand on the upper part of her chest just below her throat as she watched them. None of them looked at John, but they should have.

If they had they would have seen him lower his phone to look at the picture that he had just taken, one that would become helpful in the next few days.

Jack headed to RE with Owen and Rhys and Tosh headed away from all of them to go to History. Gwen and Ianto made their way up to IT.

"Are you going to be alright to type with your wrists like that Ianto?" Gwen asked, being a bit more couscous than she really needed to be.

"Yeah, I'm trying to make nothing much of it and then hopefully no one else will." And Gwen nodded, happy to respect what Ianto thought and wanted. After IT Ianto and Gwen headed outside to meet Toshiko for their free lesson time. The three of them waved at Jack as he passed them to go to IT and at Owen and Rhys as they headed to Geography.

* * *

At break time Jack and Ianto went off on their own to talk.

"So why did you come into school today then Ianto?"

"Well partly because my Dad wanted me to as he didn't want me sat at home and I…" Ianto trailed off for a second, "I don't trust myself to be alone and not do anything that I would regret."

"I suppose that's a good enough set of reasons, or the last one is at least." Ianto nodded. Jack thought for a moment before he decided that now was the right time to sat what he wanted to.

"By the way Ianto, you Uncle is a very nice man, you should tell me more about him since we didn't discuss personal details while I was there," Ianto looked shocked and Jack smiled slightly, "He said congratulations on having me for a boyfriend as well."

Ianto smiled and laughed, "How did I know that he would do that when he finally found out that we were together." Jack couldn't help, but do the same.

PE followed, quite violently for Jack as he always tried to get as close to John as he could to try and trip the other up. When he finally did manage it, he got sent off for it, but he didn't care as it meant he would be sat with Ianto for longer.

Although the only down point to that was that John was sent over to sit with them as well since Jack had tripped him over.

"So why was that put into play?" John asked as he looked over at Jack who was sat in between him and Ianto.

"Because you deserved it." Jack replied simply.

"Are you going to say why?" John asked.

"No."

"Alright," John replied before looking behind Jack to see Ianto, "Also do you think you could move and let me sit beside your little friend there."

"No."

"It's that all that you are going to say to me?" John asked, slightly annoyed with Jack now.

"No." Jack repeated for the third time, happy that he was annoying the other.

"That is all that you are going to say isn't it? Now you are really-"

"Do us all a favour John and shut up." Ianto said interrupting the other. Jack almost chocked on laughter at the look on John's face before he broke out laughing with the younger, wrapping an arm around him as they watched Owen and Rhys finish off the game, cheering them both on until the last minute.

And John seemed to do as Ianto had said – he shut up.

* * *

At lunch, Jack had to search for Ianto, but when he found him he had to cough slightly to get Ianto's attention.

"I thought this was why you came to school." Jack took the small vial like bottle out of Ianto's hand from behind and wrapped his arms around the thin frame of his boyfriend.

Ianto sighed, "I know," He paused knowing that Jack would be reading the label on the bottle right about now, "I'm sorry."

"It's alright-ish."

"There's no such word." Ianto replied.

"Is now," The older replied before changing the subject again, "You are too thin anyway and you know that starving yourself can be considered a way of suicide."

"Since when did you become an expert?"

"Since you attempt to kill yourself." Jack pocketed the bottle in in of the pockets of his coat.

"I'm really sorry Jack, I told myself that I wouldn't, but that failed didn't it."

"Hey I don't blame you for this."

"But I want to die." Those last four words almost made Jack freeze, almost. Because he knew that if he stopped now, Ianto could get an advantage on the situation.

"No you don't. Really you don't mean that and there are lots of good things."

"Like?"

"Well there is always me." Jack replied. Ianto laughed, but then he seemed to turn serious.

"You are right though Jack you always seem to be there."

"Of course I am, I need to be, to convince you to do the right thing."

"And what's the right thing for me to do at the minute then Jack?" Ianto asked.

"To live," Jack replied as he pulled Ianto close, taking a bandaged hand in his own, "To live for me if nothing else."

* * *

Okay, so Saturday for the next chapter. Also this chapter was slightly longer in case I don't get my next update up until Sunday or late Saturday evening as I have a massive family thing to go to during the day so it takes away my writing time. Thank you for alerting, favouriting, reviewing and reading. Please keep reviewing and I will try to update Four Senses as soon as possible.


	23. Chapter 23

Alright onto the next chapter now, so I hope you like this one as well.

* * *

Ianto went along to his drama lesson that afternoon not that he had really wanted to, however Jack had said it was better than doing nothing. Although he didn't walk into the hall alone as Jack followed him in at his side.

Gwen looked slightly shocked when she saw the pair of them.

"Jack you aren't in our class are you?" She asked confused. Jack had never been in any of their lessons before so why had he just appeared in one now.

"I'm accompanying Ianto," He replied, "Go on just act as if I'm not here." Jack had enjoyed watching the lesson and thought that Gwen and Ianto were both very good with what they did. At the end of the lesson Jack smiled and extended a hand for Ianto to take.

Ianto took the hand and left the school with his boyfriend carefully walking down the road towards where their houses were until Jack stopped walking and so Ianto did too, looking at Jack curiously.

"What is it?" Ianto asked.

"I was just thinking – if you are up to it – that maybe we could have a trip into town?" Jack offered, "But only if you want to do so, of course."

"I don't mind." Ianto replied turning around to face the opposite direction. He and Jack started walking again, but this time in the opposite direction. On their way back in the other direction they ran into Tosh and Owen.

"Oh sorry guys," Owen started before realising the direction that the pair in front of him were walking, "Why are you guys heading back towards the school? I would hate to be there any longer than I had to."

"Actually we were going to head into town together." Jack replied. Toshiko smiled.

"Well we'll see you later then." Toshiko said before grabbing Owen's hand and walking away from the school. Jack and Ianto continued on walking and made their way into town. When they got there the first thing that Jack said was:

"Ice cream?" He had asked. And that was the two worded question that had brought them to this moment of being sat on a bench in town eating ice cream. Or not eating ice cream.

"I can't believe," Jack started before taking another bite of his ice cream, "That you don't like ice cream." He paused to eat some more before he continued speaking once again on the same subject of ice cream.

"I mean who doesn't like ice cream?" He was looking now at the numerous amounts of people walking around. A lot of the children had ice cream and a few of the adults did as well, "It's just slightly strange you know, people who don't like ice cream."

"That is me then." Ianto replied.

"Well you are special."

"Why thank you. I've been called many things, but special has never been one of them. At least I don't think so anyway."

"Then I am more than glad to be the first, Ianto Jones," He paused slightly before then saying, "But still how can you not like ice cream?" That was when Ianto whacked him on the elbow.

"Ow," Jack shouted as he hadn't been expecting such a thing to come from Ianto, "What was that for?"

"For going on about me not liking ice cream." Ianto replied.

"Alright, don't hit me," Jack held his hands up in defeat, his ice cream still held in one, "But why don't you like ice cream?"

"It gives me a headache."

"But we all went out for ice cream before though. Don't you remember that?" Jack asked.

"Nope."

"But you remember everything Ianto."

"I don't remember that though." The younger replied before looking up at Jack.

"What?" He asked curiously as Ianto stared at him, "Really what is it? Hold on, have I got ice cream on my face?"

"No," Ianto replied, "How did you know about my Uncle I didn't tell you a single thing about him."

"I spoke to Toshiko. I didn't know just how good she was with computers, but she is good – very good in fact – she found out about it somehow by clicking buttons."

"And you decided to pay him a visit."

"Yeah." Jack answered plainly.

"Okay." Ianto replied.

"I would like to see him again though." Jack commented.

"Come with me then, after school one day maybe?" Ianto offered.

"Yeah, sounds good to me." Jack replied.

"Well that's settled then." Ianto told him.

"Yep." Jack replied.

"Yeah."

"Good."

"Great."

"Wonderful."

"Let's stop this now. It's getting a little bit annoying."

"Yeah it is," Jack replied before he stood up and held out a hand again, "Come on we can go anywhere you want."

"What about a present for my Uncle," Ianto said as he stood up and took the hand of his boyfriend, "Since he's the only real family that I consider myself to have."

"Alright I have an idea, come with me." Ianto followed Jack and the rest of the afternoon and early evening was strangely wonderful.

* * *

Tosh sat at the table across from Owen. He Mother had cleared up the dinner plates long ago, but neither of them felt like moving from where they were seated.

"So…" Owen started.

"So…" Toshiko copied not sure on what else to say.

"We could-"

"What do you-" Both of them spoke at the same time and then stopped at the same time.

"You go first." Owen told her.

"No you." Toshiko fired back still not sure as to what she wanted to say.

"Alright, well I was going to suggest that we watched TV." Owen replied.

"I'm fine with that if you are." Toshiko smiled at him.

"Yep sounds good to me."

"Let us go do that then." Tosh said as she stood up, Owen following to do the same.

* * *

Gwen sighed and placed her pencil back down onto the desk and placed her head into her hands. She had never been the best with maths, but she did try.

Owen's birthday was on Friday and she was tempted to arrange a surprise party for him since he had said last year that his Mother probably wouldn't do so.

Gwen sighed again and picked her pencil back up to continue drawing the graph that she had been working on before hand.

* * *

Ianto lay looking up at the blank ceiling of his bedroom. He had been sleeping peacefully until about ten minutes ago when something had pulled him from sleep again as usual. He was seriously beginning to consider that he actually did have something like insomnia just as Jack had thought a little while ago.

He texted Jack while he thought of it and just asked him stupid things like what's the weather forecast for tomorrow. His phone vibrated a moment later and he opened the message.

_Sun with short showers. What's wrong? Can you not sleep?_

_Jack :)_

Ianto looked at the smiley face at the end of the text. He had never been a massive fan of them, but he would let it slip for now and because it was Jack as well. So Ianto went about sorting out a reply.

_No I can't. Plus I'm not allowed to take anything, because of all of the paracetamol that I took before._

He only had to wait another moment before Jack replied.

_Sleep over mine again tomorrow if you want to? You seem to sleep better there, but that could just be me being paranoid._

Ianto smiled at the text happily. He felt peaceful now and suddenly sleepy like something had managed to find it in him. He was pretty much almost asleep when he heard the door opening. The front door.

He took a glance to the clock. Ten to two. That meant that it could only be his Dad or Ian. Ianto quietly rose from the bed and made his way out of the room and down the first few stairs, so that he could see the people that were now making their way into the lounge.

He stayed there – in that same position in order to hear what they were saying.

"Look I have to do something about it." His Dad's voice was extremely clear to him.

"You don't even know it for certain." He heard Ian's voice.

"I think I would know if my own son was arranging some conspiracy against me."

"Okay look I know that it is a very likely possibility that he is and that he most likely will try something to get you-"

"He tried to commit suicide, does that not tell you enough." Ianto had left at that point and picked his phone back up off of his bed and texted his reply to Jack.

_How long does that offer extend for?_

* * *

The next morning, Ianto was finishing packing his different books into his bag when the doorbell rang. He headed over to answer it and was surprised to find Jack there.

"I thought that I gave you a door key?"

"You did, but I just didn't feel right using it knowing that you are actually here and in a better state of mind this time," Ianto smiled slightly, "At least I hope you are."

"Yeah I am." He replied although he wasn't so convinced of those words being true himself, but he was slowly going back to his best state of mind.

"Can I come in?" Jack asked.

"Yeah sure," Ianto stepped aside to let the older walk in past him before he slipped the door shut again, "So what is it with the early morning visit?"

"I was just hoping to see you for longer, there isn't really a reason though I suppose. Does there have be one?"

"Well people usually have reasons for doing things."

"Okay then I guess my real reason would have to be the late night texting." Jack held up his phone as if to exaggerate this point.

"I think you might have been right, I am gathering that it might be the best explanation for it."

"Insomia. Knew it, I told you that," Jack replied as he chucked his bag down and sat down on the stairs. Ianto nodded, "Anyway about this offer of mine to sleep over. Why did you want me to extend it and how long for?"

"I don't know maybe a couple of days if that is possible, till the end of the weekend?" Ianto asked.

"Of course it's possible I have too much space in my house. Now do I get to know why?"

"Later. We are still going to see my Uncle later at some point aren't we?" Ianto asked as he put his sketch book into his bag.

"Yeah I was thinking Thursday, just before Owen's birthday. I was thinking of possible presents for him last night and thought that if we got those early this week then we would be free to see your Uncle later in the week."

"Sounds good to me."

"Alright so let's see you are going to need your books for the rest of the school week, clothes that will last until the weekend. I don't know maybe an Ipod, defiantly your mobile phone, what about your laptop? Do you want to take that or will you last for four days without it?"

"What are you going on about now?"

"You're coming to stay with me, so we might as well pack now and drop whatever you bring with you off at my house on our way to school."

"So that is way you came over early." Ianto said, smiling.

"Yeah, I suppose it is." Jack replied.

Later on they left Ianto's before the usual time that they would meet Toshiko and walked to Jack's house where they dumped the bags that Ianto had packed before heading back out down the road to wait for Owen, Tosh, Gwen and Rhys who arrived a little while later.

* * *

"Ianto!" Tosh called, catching up with him as he made his way to maths, "How are you today?"

"Alright thanks," Ianto replied, "By the way I'm really sorry about Friday - Jack told me - I didn't mean to scare you or make you feel ill."

"It's alright, I just couldn't believe it at first." She stopped speaking and smiled.

"What is it?"

"It's strange, but it seems to have brought me and Owen closer than we were before."

"Well I am glad that Owen seems to finally be realising what he should have realised ages ago." Ianto smiled and Toshiko smiled back.

In science (since their teacher decided to be particularly mean) he decided to test Owen on a part of the module that they hadn't done yet. Everyone was surprised when Owen got everything – with the exception of one question – correct.

Everyone clapped and cheered him before the teacher sent him out of the room . When Jack and Ianto met up with him at break he didn't seem to care.

"So what are you doing for your birthday on Friday Owen?" Gwen asked as she leant against Rhys at break time.

"Probably nothing since my Mum won't organise anything for me or at least I highly doubt that she will."

"Aww that's a shame mate," Rhys replied, "Typical too, but I bet you could organise a better birthday party than she could yourself."

Owen chuckled slightly, "Yeah, but it's not much fun planning your own birthday party now is it."

* * *

Ianto considered this as he sat in art thinking about the different things that Owen liked. He knew that chocolate biscuits were defiantly one of them, so they had to go on the list, whatever.

A hand on his shoulder, shook him out of his thoughts. He looked to his left to see John there smiling at him strangely. A strange smile that Ianto didn't like.

"You know Jack is too protective of you."

"He's not that bad." Ianto replied.

"He was never that protective of me, never."

"Well maybe you didn't need protecting."

"Maybe your right," He stood up, however he made no move to move his hand off of Ianto's shoulder, "Because I am sure that you do need protecting, because I will get you, Eye Candy." John smirked and moved his hand off of Ianto's shoulder as he walked away.

Ianto didn't see much threat in the conversation, but it was the name – the final two words, maybe even the final seven words even – that worried him.

* * *

That evening Ianto sat on Jack's sofa with a notebook resting on his legs and a pen held in his hand while he thought of numerous different ideas of things that he could do for Owen's birthday that he would like.

Jack walked back into the room with tow mugs of coffee and sat down next to Ianto and looking over his shoulder at what he was writing.

"Ahh, so you are going to plan something for Owen."

"Well you heard him, his Mother won't do it and it isn't much fun planning your own, so someone has to."

"Let me help then," Jack paused for a second, but only for a second, "I know that he likes meat feast pizza's." Ianto jotted that down onto the sheet of paper.

"What else?"

"Coke a Cola, Lemonade and Fanta of any flavour he doesn't have a favourite out of those. He hates Tango and Cherryade with a passion. He doesn't mind Crunchies, but his favourites are Mars bars and the giant bars of Aero – mint or chocolate, I don't believe that he minds out of the two. Although I do know that he absolutely detests those Curley Whirly chocolate things."

"Okay got that." Ianto replied and Jack glanced at the paper to see everything that he had just said written on there.

"You didn't have to write it all."

"Yeah, but now we defiantly won't get the wrong things."

"Well I suppose that is one thing."

The rest of the evening was spent with the two of them making a massive shopping list for the shopping that they would have to get tomorrow after school. So when school finished on Wednesday the pair of them made their way to the local Tesco's.

Jack was walking around the shop making a fool of himself.

"Jack," Ianto exclaimed suddenly as many packets of chocolate cookies were thrown into the trolley that Jack had been pushing around quite dangerously earlier. One he had stopped and Ianto had nearly run right into the back of him, "I know Owen likes chocolate cookies, but I don't think that we need to buy that many!"

"Well how many do we need then?

"I don't know. But think there's ten in one pack and we are only inviting about fifty people, so buy six packets to be on the safe side."

"Are you sure we won't need fifthteen?"

"I'm sure," Ianto replied, whacking Jack lightly on the elbow, "Unless you plan on eating them all that is."

They were sat watching the TV when Jack produced the leaflet that had been given to him by Doctor John Smith on Saturday.

"What is it?" Ianto asked.

"It's a team support group that he runs every week on Thursday evenings. I think and he thought that you should go. Or at least go once to try it out and see what it's like. They discuss lots of things like bullying, relationships and lots of other things that may be beneficial to you."

"And how would know whether it would help me or not?" Ianto asked, slightly annoyed that Jack thought he knew what was best for him without even asking him what he thought.

"Well I just thought that maybe you might consider going along."

"No way."

"Oh come on Ianto, try it at least once," Jack pleaded, "You tried to commit suicide on Friday and you went to try again on Monday and I don't suppose that if you weren't here with me that you would have tried again during the latter half of the week."

"What makes you think that?" Ianto asked as he stood up.

"Well I-" Jack paused, "Look Ianto I should have thought through what I was saying before I said it."

"Yeah you should have." Jack sighed as Ianto left the room.

* * *

The next morning Ianto was a little bit calmer when he brought Jack a mug of coffee.

"Thanks." Jack said as he walked into the kitchen and took the mug from his boyfriend happily.

"You're welcome." Ianto said as he started to leave the room.

"Ianto!" Jack called out, "We're still going to see your Uncle after school right?"

"I am. If you want to come to them you can."

"If you will let me, I would love to." Jack replied. He saw Ianto told his head slightly, but he didn't use words to say anything, but he didn't need to.

* * *

Jack was the one who was waiting for Ianto at the end of his History lesson at the end of that day. When Ianto's class were finally let out he smiled and Jack and they started to walk towards the prison.

The receptionist must have recognised them both as she seemed slightly shocked at seeing the pair of them together.

"We're here to see-" Jack started, but she had interrupted him.

"Yes I know, Dafydd Lewis, yes am I right?"

"Yeah."

"Ianto!" Dafydd called the moment that he saw his Nephew before getting close enough to wrap him in a hug. Once he let Ianto go he shook Jack's hand and smiled at him before they all sat down to start talking.

"Ianto I was so worried when Jack told me about the suicide attempt thing."

"Sorry, I didn't feel that I was worth keeping around."

"Well you are." Jack replied.

"As you keep saying." Ianto replied.

"So then why did the pair of you decide to come and visit me today, I wasn't expecting it."

"Because we felt like it." Ianto told him.

"And I felt like tagging along." Jack replied. Dafydd smiled.

"Not that I'm not glad to see the both of you, but Jack could I please have a moment with Ianto, alone?"

"Sure." Jack answered as he stood up and made his way to the other side of the room.

"Ianto, does he know about you know your whole home life situation?"

Ianto breathed in, "No he doesn't, I haven't had the will power to tell him. I'm a bit too afraid of who might find out about it."

"Alright, but can I suggest that if you trust him that you tell him. You can tell him with me here if that's any better."

"Yeah I suppose, but not today."

"It has to be some day though."

"Yeah."

"Okay, why don't you ask Jack to come back over." Ianto nodded and rose from his seat to head over to where Jack was before both of them came back and sat down.

Ianto groaned when he saw Jack pull a colourful leaflet and passed it over to Ianto's Uncle who read through it before looking up at Ianto and then passing it back to Jack.

"Are you going to this?" He asked Ianto, who shook his head.

"No."

"Well I think that it would be a good thing for you."

"Well I don't, Jack and I already discussed this last night, so I don't know why he even brought it up."

"Ianto please-" Jack started, but was hushed Dafydd who then rose from his chair and gently pulled Ianto up out of his seat and shuffled a little way away from Jack who was – thankfully – smart enough to have the sense not to follow.

"I think you would be wise to consider it, I'm not going to make you go."

"Why would I want to tell people my own personal things? Why would I want them all to know? I mean I probably won't even know any of them, why would I tell strangers things like that?"

"Ianto listen to me." His Uncle looked him in the eye and placed his hands on the tops of Ianto's arms, like he had always done was his Nephew was younger and upset about something. The gesture reminded Ianto of a time when he had done that in the past and Jack from where he was sat seemed to notice this too.

"When Rhiannon was your age do you remember all those things people said to her about her weight?" Ianto nodded. His Uncle had been a free man around that time. After he had stopped Rhiannon from nearly killing herself he had phoned him and asked him to come round. His Dad hadn't been too happy when he came in to find his Brother in Law with his two children.

He was even more annoyed when he found out that they had invited him to come round.

"I spoke to her about that and asked her to consider going along to something like this, but she never did," He paused to watch for any reaction from Ianto, "When she told me about the fact that she was getting married she was still cutting her arms, Ianto."

"I never knew." Ianto replied.

"You couldn't off she was too good at hiding these things just like you are, because that's the way that your Dad has always brought you up to hide things, not to say anything, not to tell or talk to anyone."

Ianto nodded.

"I don't want to see you do a similar thing. You have a great boyfriend over there, I can tell," Both of them looked over in Jacks direction, who smiled back at them almost nervously, "Let him help you, let me help you and talk to someone."

"I don't want to go to it, I-"

"Look at these groups they don't expect you to input things straight away."

"How would you know!" Ianto part exclaimed it and part asked it, but his Uncle took it as a question either way.

"Because I went to one with your Mother after she had had you and she was worried about your Dad's abusive tendencies as they became more and more common. She went along three times to an abuse support group, but she never inputted anything and they never forced her too."

"It could have changed."

"I highly doubt it," Dafydd Lewis replied, "You could even take him with you like your Mother did me." Ianto looked over in Jack's direction before turning back to face his Uncle and nodding.

"I'll go and try it." He said at last. His Uncle smiled slightly.

"Good on you," He patted Ianto's shoulder with one hand, "And remember you are always welcome to come and see me and talk to me any time and so is your boyfriend over there alright?"

"Yeah," Ianto replied, "Thanks." His Uncle moved his hands off of Ianto's arms and steered him back over towards Jack.

"He's agreed to go and try it." Dafydd told Jack who stood up and placed a hand on Ianto's back.

"Thanks. We'll see you again soon."

"Good, I'm not letting you date my Nephew if you don't."

"Oh then I wouldn't fear anything." Jack replied as he and Ianto left the room and then the prison itself.

* * *

The pair were stood outside of the venue and although Ianto had agreed to it, he was unwilling to now go inside, but Jack had no clue as to a reason why. He assumed it to be nerves.

"I don't know why I agreed to this."

"Because somewhere in your mind you know that the right thing to do is to go. You could talk to someone about it all."

"I don't want to talk about it to strangers."

"Then just do what your Uncle said, just go and listen," Jack paused, "I'll come in with you, I don't mind."

Ianto sighed, "Fine I'll go inside."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Jack asked as Ianto started walking.

"Well I'm defiantly not going in their alone."

"Great, let's go," Jack replied, "It will be something new for the both of us."

Jack was the one who opened the door and all eyes turned to him and Ianto as he did so. Doctor John Smith stood up and looked at the pair of them.

"Jack, Ianto, I'm glad you could make it, come in sit down." Jack waited for Ianto to walk in before shutting the door behind him and then sitting down with him in the circle that was made up of about seven other people who must have been around a similar age to them, maybe a bit younger.

Doctor Smith sat back down and asked if anyone wanted to say anything or tell a story. One girl started to speak. She was telling a story about bullying that was happening at school following her back to her house through the internet. Another boy then decided to tell a story that led on from that and Doctor Smith made no move to stop the conversation between the group of teens.

"I remember once, I liked one of my best friends and I told him that privately. The next day I walked into school and everyone seemed to know about it and then they kept following me on my way home writing stuff on the internet and they just kept on going and it makes you feel hopeless."

"So do it back to them," Suggested a black haired girl from the opposite side of the circle, "That's what I did before when people bullied me on the internet."

"Yeah, but that's one of many options," Doctor Smith started, Ianto was fiddling with his jacket while he listened to what the others had to say, "Can I ask how many of you have done that."

Ianto watched as Jack raised a hand – the first out of all of them to raise a hand – and he wasn't even here for the group, he was here for Ianto. Out of the corner of his eyes, Ianto noticed Doctor Smith and Jack share a look.

After Jack three more people raised their hands and Ianto continued to listen as they all started telling stories again on that before Doctor Smith turned back to his earlier comment.

"Anyway that was one way of doing things-" He had continued until the end of the group. Jack and Ianto made their way back to Jack's.

"So next week?" Jack asked.

"I suppose. I mean I didn't have to say anything unless I wanted to."

"So it wasn't as bad as you thought then?"

"No, it wasn't." Ianto replied.

* * *

The next day was Owen's birthday and the group wished him happy birthday in the morning, although they gave him no presents or birthday cards. Owen had seemed relatively down that morning and Tosh had explained that he had gone home last night to stay with his Mother at home again.

At the end of school once their science lesson had finished, Ianto handed Owen an envelope with a small smile before he left with Jack in more of a hurry than usual. Owen opened the envelope and read the card that was from both Jack and Ianto.

God they were sending birthday cards as a pair now. But it was the message at the bottom that caught his attention. He showed Toshiko, Gwen and Rhys on the way home, but even they didn't seem to have a clue. Little did he actually know that they did.

That night when he turned up at said location that was in the message everything was dark. He made his way inside and looked around.

"Alright Jack, Ianto, it's hilariously hilarious now you can turn the lights on and come out already." Owen called out into the darkness of the place Almost straight after he had said it the lights turned on and he was covered in streamers.

He noticed Toshiko, Gwen and Rhys and then Ianto and Jack stood at the very front of the club disco room by the stage and the DJ of the place.

"What's all of this for?" Owen asked.

"Birthday party for you." Jack replied.

"Oh well thanks, Harkness." Owen replied with a small smile as Jack and Ianto made their way over to him.

"Well I didn't really do anything, but help with the shopping and a list of things that you liked, but it was Ianto that arranged it all and sorted this place out." Owen looked to Ianto and after a moment smiled and held out a hand for Ianto to shake which he did before Owen then surprised everyone and pulled Ianto in for a short hug before letting go.

After he had let go, the first thing that he said was: "Where are all of my presents then?"

* * *

By the time the party ended it was past midnight and by the time that Ianto had walked home it was at least half past, so he was surprised to see the living room light on. That evening Ianto had headed back to his house and promised Jack that he would see him tomorrow at some point and that he would ring him to let him know.

Ianto unlocked the front door with his key and headed into the lounge to see his Dad and John shaking hands.

"Ah Ianto, I wondered when you would be home." His Dad said. Ianto looked between the two people, not quite knowing who to settle his gaze on.

"What's going on?" He asked completely confused as to why John was here. John Hart who he one, hated and two, didn't even have his address unless he had followed him home once before.

"Well your friend and I were just having a chat weren't we John."

"Yes we were Ianto, but know I will be going if you don't mind," John stood up and looked to Ianto's Dad, "Thank you for allowing me to speak to you tonight it was a pleasure."

"You are very welcome. It was enlightening." His Dad watched as the other left. When John passed Ianto, the younger felt him place something into his coat pocket, but Ianto didn't dare to look at with his Dad in the room.

When they both heard the lock click shut that was when the talking began.

"What was he doing here?"

"Why didn't you tell me where you were going?"

There was silence for a moment as Ianto considered whether he was going to say anything else or not. His Dad seemed to be waiting for it, so Ianto spoke.

"What was he talking to you about?" Maybe that was the wrong question, however Ianto couldn't manage to think of an alternative.

"Just about you. You and that Jack boy that I meant before."

"What about us?" Ianto asked, "He's my friend."

"Oh he is much more than, is he not? Or at least he is according to John."

"And you trust him?"

"Yes Ianto I do." His Dad reached down to the table and picked up something and handed it to Ianto. Ianto looked at it and he could have sworn that his breath had caught in his throat. There was a photo of Jack and Ianto from when they had kissed on Monday, Ianto realised then that John must have photographed it.

"I thought that I had always made it clear enough to you of the sort of thing that loving another guy does."

"Yeah nothing that will affect you." That got him one slap across the face. Ianto looked at his Dad and watched him carefully for a second.

"I will not have any son of mine in a relationship with some form of gay-" His Dad stopped speaking when Ianto slapped him across the face, "What was that for?"

"You did it to me and I am fed up of you governing everything that I do."

"Break up with him." The man spoke with a dangerous edge to it. Ianto shook his head.

"Break up with him now."

"No," Ianto replied. His Dad looked at him and Ianto stared back, "What are you going to do?"

His Dad silently left the room and Ianto breathed for what seemed like the first time since he had entered the room. He stood dazed for a second until his lips carefully curved into a small smile as he looked on the situation as him finally winning over his Dad.

Suddenly the air was knocked out of his lungs as something hit him from behind. Ianto turned around and whacked his Dad over the head before regretting it as his Dad pushed him to the floor, his head hitting the end of the cabinet that the TV sat on top of. He tried to get his hands up, but his Dad held them down and his wrists felt weak enough anyway.

A punch to the stomach, to the ribs and a hit to the head as well as a very close to death grip around his neck and that was when Ianto was able to pull the man off of him. When the need for air got so great that his strength was helped by the panic that he had felt. Ianto had shuffled away as close to the wall as he could get and shut his eyes.

He kept them shut for what felt like eternity, but what was actually only about three minutes. He sorted out his breathing and levelled it out to the best of his ability. He heard a door upstairs bang shut he knew that he would be safe for the rest of the night.

Ianto picked himself up and clambered to his feet holding onto the wall for support on his balance. He made his way up the stairs and found every single travel bag or suitcase like thing that he owned and chucked as much of his stuff into them as he could. School books went first into his school bag, every single one.

Clothes went after into the rest of them and then a few personal things of his that were special to him as well as his laptop.

By the time Ianto had packed everything that he wanted to take and managed to get it all downstairs it was just after two in the morning. Ianto stayed in the hallway that night. He remembered the thing that John had put into this coat pocket and fished around for it. When he found it he unfolded it and read the words that were written on it.

_I told you I would get you, Eye Candy._

Ianto sighed and grabbed a hold of his phone before ringing Jack's number. He knew it was late, but he needed to talk to him and he need to talk to him now.

It dialled for a long while before a slightly tired sounding Jack answered.

"Hello?" He obviously checked the caller ID or something , because he suddenly changed slightly, "Ianto are you alright you don't usually ring me this late, I mean you have texted me this late before when you couldn't sleep, but never rung me."

"Well this is different, Jack I need you to let me stay with you again."

"Sure how long for this time? A week? Two?"

"I don't know, but it's probably going to be for quite a while this time." Ianto explained.

"Why what's happened?" Jack asked he was worried now and Ianto could hear that coming through in the tone of his voice. When Ianto didn't answer for a second Jack repeated what he had just said, speaking again, "Ianto what's wrong? What's happened?"

Ianto thought through his answer carefully before he replied, "I shouldn't tell you, but I will, just not over the phone like this."

"Okay are you alright staying where you are overnight?"

"Yeah."

"Great, I'll meet you in the park, tomorrow morning at…" Jack trailed off for Ianto to fill in the gap.

"Seven."

"Seven it is." Ianto ended the call after saying goodbye and leaned his head against the wall. The heating wasn't on in the house and it was quite cold outside, but to Ianto he felt like he was burning.

* * *

Alright I hope that you liked this chapter. Thanks for favouriting, alerting, reviewing and reading.


	24. Chapter 24

A little later than I had originally planned, but hopefully this chapter will make up for this and I hope to update again on Sunday and then probably Tuesday or Wednesday to try and make up for the long gap as well.

* * *

Ianto left the house the next morning to go and meet Jack. Carrying so many bags was annoying, but he put up with it for the mean time. When he arrived at the park, Jack was already there waiting for him. The minute that he saw the younger he was making his way over to him.

The minute that Jack draw level with his boyfriend he was grabbing all of the bags that Ianto had from him and chucking them over his shoulders.

"Whoa you don't look so good." Jack announced after having looked Ianto over before Ianto wobbled on his feet and lost his balance slightly. Even with everything else that he was holding, Jack managed to grab a secure hold on Ianto.

"Come on, best get you out of here, before anyone sees and wonders what the hell we are doing." Carefully they made their way to Jack's with Ianto stumbling a few times as they did so. When they did get there, Jack gave Ianto a choice on where to go.

"Upstairs or downstairs?"

"I'm fine downstairs." Ianto replied. Moments later in was sitting on the couch with Jack entering the room again with a massive selection of pillows and blankets.

"Feet up, lay down" He told the younger before placing a pillow behind his head and then giving him a choice in what blanket he wanted. Ianto looked at the range of thin or thick blankets, but decided to leave it off in the end with a simple explanation.

"I feel to warm, I don't think that I need it."

"Alright, what do you want to eat then?" Jack asked.

"I'm not hungry." Ianto replied.

"Yes you are," Jack answered back saying what he was sure that Ianto felt, "I can do you whatever you like."

"I'll be sick if I eat anything."

"What about toast?" Jack didn't want to believe that Ianto's last comment was true.

"I think that counts as anything."

"At least try it." Ianto looked in thought for a moment before he nodded his answer and Jack left him for a moment to make some. He came back a few minutes later with a plate of toast and a glass water, both of which he placed to the side of himself before he sat on the floor at the other end of the sofa to Ianto's head, so that he could see the other's facial features.

"Can you explain it to me now?"

"Can I trust you not to tell anyone?"

"Of course you can." Jack replied and Ianto took a deep breath before wondering whether he could get away without telling Jack, although he guessed from the state of him, that that option wouldn't be possible. Jack spoke again before he said anything else.

"You have lost too much weight, your very pale and," He reached over a hand to touch Ianto's forehead, "I would say you are running a temperature, so I don't think you are very well no matter what you say. On top of that you called me really late last night, so something is wrong."

"Alright, I trust you, your my boyfriend and I suppose that you deserve an explanation."

"In your own time, Ianto." Jack told him, hoping that would make it seem less of a pressured thing to tell him whatever had previously been bothering him for however long it had been going on for.

"Okay," Ianto breathed in sharply, "It all started when I was and Rhiannon and she always tried to keep me out of his way as much as she could. Dad would drink a lot and even when he didn't he would still end up hitting us"

"He did it to Mum as well and so usually there was nothing she could do to help us either. When she died," Ianto wasn't going to tell Jack just yet that she was still alive – in a psychiatric hospital – but still alive, "Dad didn't touch me until I was four, but neither I nor Rhiannon know why that was. He would hit her though, but at a young age I didn't really get why I always just thought they were playing some kind of game or something."

"So did you and Rhiannon do anything about it?"

"Well Rhiannon would always tell me when we had to go upstairs and stuff and I didn't really understand why until just before I turned five and he had hit me as well. Rhiannon being seven years older than I was would always try to keep me out of his way, but it didn't always work. He used to be really careful with where he would hit us, but lately he's gotten careless. " Ianto smiled slightly, although Jack could tell that it wasn't really a smile, but more of a smile at the situation that his Dad was slipping standards.

"So I understand that, but the suicide attempt?"

"He always seemed like he wanted me and Rhiannon to die and she had tried something like it, so I thought I might save him the trouble," Ianto paused for a second before looking at Jack, "By the way, they mentioned that I'd lost a lot of blood and that you told them my blood type."

"Yeah AB negative, I learnt it just in case."

"Anyway when I came home last night John was there talking to my Dad about my relationship with you."

"Oh right." Jack was shocked.

"John obviously took a photo of us when we kissed on Monday," Ianto could see that Jack was beginning to get annoyed, "My Dad's extremely homophobic, so I knew that if he ever found out that he wouldn't agree, so that's why I didn't say anything about my feelings for you before hand."

"Alright, do you think that he will find you here?"

"I don't know, because if John's giving him information then he would know where you lived." Jack nodded. John was going to be a problem.

"I'll see what I can get him to tell me. Maybe I can convince him not to say anything else."

"I highly doubt it, he seems intent to destroy are relationship."

"Alright enough about that. I just-" Jack didn't quite know how to say what he wanted to, "I can't believe that you never told me about this before, I could have helped you!"

"Sorry."

"I wasn't angry," Jack replied, "Well I am, but not with you."

"That's good at least." Ianto yawned almost straight after he had spoken and leaned his head back against the pillow that Jack had given him, "I think I have some kind of fever."

"I wouldn't be surprised if you did Ianto. You rarely ever have any form of illness, so it's not all that unlikely if you are," Ianto made a small sound that sounded to Jack like some form of agreement, "By the way do you want this toast and glass of water now?"

Ten minutes later, Ianto had managed to survive eating the round of toast that Jack had done for him without being sick like he had thought. Jack was now sat with him on the sofa and Ianto was resting his head on Jack instead of the pillow.

"So can I ask about what you want to do about the whole thing, because if I was you then I would report it, of course they'll ask for evidence, but surely you can manage to provide that if these things have been going on for how long you said it has."

"Yeah I can prove it, but where will I go Jack? I won't stay with my Dad and I have no one else, so I could end up in a care home anywhere."

"What about your Uncle? He could look after you, couldn't he?"

"Remember that he's in prison for murder Jack, so he will probably be there for life."

"But you know that he didn't do it, so couldn't you get him some kind of trail and bring forth evidence that showed it wasn't him then you could go and live with him."

"I don't have any though, only my word against his." Ianto looked downhearted at this, so Jack tried to cheer him up.

"How about we watch Titanic, I've always liked to watch that film. Its educational," Jack said as he carefully stood up and looked around to grab the right DVD box, "Do you like Titanic Ianto or have you not seen it before?"

"Of course I have seen it. I've watched it on my laptop before and yes it is educational, but I mean how you can like it as such. Because I know it's a likeable film, but- well you know what I mean."

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Jack replied as he made his way back to the sofa with the remote and started to play the DVD. Ianto was asleep once the ship had sunk, because he was just too tired to keep his eyes open any longer.

"I'm assuming that you didn't get much sleep last night." Jack's voice said once he woke up again. Looking at the clock it showed that he had been asleep for two whole hours.

"Yeah, I was in a bit too much pain to sleep."

"Strange most people want to sleep when they are in pain." Jack replied.

"Well I struggle to sleep at the best of times." Ianto reminded him.

"I know, we'll find a way to sort that soon," He paused and Ianto could sense what he was going to ask, but what he said was a slightly different matter, "You have a bump on the back of your head."

"Yeah, I sort of ended up knocking it into a cabinet last night."

"Anything else?"

"Punch to the stomach, grip around the neck and something hit me on the back."

"I saw the marks around your neck earlier. Wow your Dad really is getting careless if he's going for your neck now," Jack paused and Ianto wondered what he was thinking about saying, "Can I take photos later."

"What?" Ianto was shocked by that.

"I mean for visual evidence, not for- not for me to keep or anything, because I'm not like that I just thought that if you took your Dad to court for child abuse that you could have them to back you up."

"Yeah it's a good idea."

* * *

Owen sat at the dinner table in annoyance. His Mother had invited her friends and their husbands or boyfriends round for tea and Owen was forced to attend the meal much to his disappointment. Part way through there was a knock at the door and Owen used that as his reason to leave the table.

"Hey." Toshiko said as Owen opened the door and looked out at her, Gwen, and Rhys.

"Hi," Owen started, "Not that I am unhappy to see you all – because believe me I really am – really am glad, but can I ask what are you all doing here though?" He asked.

"We were all thinking of going bowling." Rhys announced before Gwen spoke.

"I was thinking, maybe a double date sort of thing, me and Rhys and you and Tosh." Owen looked on in both shock and surprise. He didn't remember Toshiko telling anyone about their small-ish, not massively existing relationship. He didn't even remember telling anyone.

"Well, I have nothing better to do," Owen then reached back and grabbed his jacket, "Mum I'm going bowling, I don't care if you make me do the washing up when I get back, but I'm going out either way."

* * *

Ianto was sat on the sofa still when Jack came back in after washing the dishes from dinner. Jack had cooked pasta for them and they had both agreed that tomorrow they would have Chinese take away to save Jack from cooking again.

The small diary in his hands had been kept by his sister with the intention so that one day she could look back on everything that she did as a child and so that her children could try the same sort of things.

The children that she would never have.

Ianto had finished off the diary by writing about her wedding and slipping in the photos of her that he had taken like she had asked him to. She had only asked him as she knew that her Dad wouldn't do so and anyway she had trusted that he would have better photography skills than their Dad.

"What's that?" Jack asked.

"Rhiannon's diary. I kept it after you know. She wrote about the good times between us or the bad things, but I never actually read through it, I just look at it and think of her."

"Can I-" Jack started extending a hand slightly toward him. Ianto guessed what he was going to ask and a moment later extended the diary out to him. Jack took it with a slight nod of his head, "Thank you."

Ianto watched as Jack opened the little book and looked at where it dated back to, "Wow this is a very long diary. It goes back to when to when she was thirteen, her birthday to be exact."

"Yeah Johnny brought it for her. She made time to update it every evening before she went to bed." Ianto answered and watched as Jack flicked carefully through the pages. He got towards the end and looked at Ianto.

"So the last event in this is the night before her wedding then?"

"No I filled in the day for her wedding and slipped the photos inside, but after that I just kept it as something to remember her by."

Jack got to the last page and his face changed into a look that Ianto couldn't read. Ianto looked at him in confusion and wondered what Jack had seen that he hadn't. Or maybe it was Jack being shocked at something, but Ianto was sure that he knew what that look looked like on Jack's face.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Did you ever look over these photos?" Jack asked as he flipped through the photos.

"No I just remember that I took loads offer and Johnny together, why do you ask that?"

"I was just looking them over and I wondered if you had seen this one before," Jack passed the photo to Ianto and the younger took it. When Ianto looked at it he realised what Jack was on about, "I can't believe you didn't notice it before when you put it in here or even remembered taking it."

"I was in shock, Jack. I had just seen my sister die and my Uncle accused of murdering her. I didn't get the photos printed until a little while later and the picture on the top was the one of Rhiannon in her wedding dress. I didn't look through them, because I guess that I didn't want to remember it ever happening." Ianto looked sad and down hearted and Jack could imagine a twelve year old Ianto looking a similar way.

"I didn't even remember taking it." that was a defiant tone of regret and Jack could tell that easily.

"You couldn't have been expect to remember it after all that." Jack replied hoping to cheer the younger up. Ianto looked for a moment before smiling.

"With this it's not just my word against his there is visual evidence as well." Ianto said, saying what Jack had been thinking when he had seen the photograph. Ianto was still smiling when he handed the photo to Jack and Jack smiled back as he took it and placed it on top of the pile of photo's.

If they had the picture blown up in size you could clearly see Ianto's Dad fiddling with something. Most probably the brakes as that was what had caused them to crash.

"So you can get your Uncle out of prison your Dad done for abuse and everything will be fine."

"Will they believe me though Jack?" Ianto asked.

"Of course they will. I mean you can show definite proof of the abuse and you can't really go against what you remember and the picture you have visual and audio evidence to vouch for both."

"I suppose." Ianto replied before leaning his head back feeling a lot hotter than he should have. Jack seemed to notice this as he put the diary down and stood up, grabbing a hold of Ianto and helping him to his feet.

"Come on it's already quarter to nine, I think that you should go to bed, we can talk some more in the morning."

The music in the background was loud and extremely annoying for if you were trying to talk to someone else that was in your company. Gwen and Rhys were busy getting on with their game of bowling - which Gwen was winning - while Owen and Tosh played their own in a separate lane.

* * *

Owen had always been good at bowling and found it very easy to show off while he played it. He knocked seven in his first go followed by the other three in his second.

Toshiko picked up a bowling ball and did the same, except she got a strike on her first go and Owen looked on in shock while Tosh turned around and smiled at him, almost evilly.

"I'm winning."

"Yeah well we are only on go four out of ten on our first game and it is only just coming up to quarter to nine, the evening isn't over yet." Owen smiled back at her before moving forward to take his go, having to watch in shock as the ball rolled down the side, missing every single bowling pin in the process.

Just over half an hour later - when they had finished the bowling game - the pair of them grabbed the drinks thatGwen and Rhys had brought over to them.

"So who won?" Gwen asked as she took a sip of her orange fanta.

"I did." Toshiko told her when it seemed like Owen wouldn't as he drank the glass of coke, having drunk most of it already without really stopping.

"Ahh, she beat me and all," Rhys started as he looked over at Gwen, "Why is it that both of you girls managed to beat us?"

"Because we can." Gwen replied before Owen placed his now empty glass down, having only stopped drinking it once for a bout five seconds.

"Yeah well next time, Tosh isn't going to stand a chance against me and I bet that neither of you would last against me either."

"Yes, because I was the one able to get three strikes while four of your throws rolled right down the edge to end up hitting nothing and you never got a single strike. That's really hard to beat, I'm sure. Good luck Gwen and Rhys at beating Owen. After all he is the King of Bowling." Toshiko said earning a glare from Owen before they all started laughing.

They headed into the arcade next and Owen decided that he was intent on winning some money from one of those machines that you put money in on top of other money and a slider pushed it forward while Rhys challenged Gwen to beat him at dance mats.

Toshiko was surprised that Rhys wasn't actually that back a dancer and that he had started off doing better than Gwen.

Owen enlisted the help of Toshiko to try and win as much money as he could. Tosh looked at the money that was already there and where about the slider was pushing it.

"Drop it to the right." She told him and watched as the penny fell and was pushed forward knocking some of the others that were in front of it. Tosh then reevaluated the playing field and pointed to the middle slot, so Owen followed her finger and dropped the coin in the new slot.

A few seconds later (after the penny had dropped and the slider had pushed it across with the rest of them,) there were coins dropping out the slot by Owen who bent down and picked them out of it.

Toshiko smiled at him when he handed her half of it.

"Now the penny has dropped with your logical thinking on that you know."

"I'll take that as a compliment, thank you Owen."

"You are welcome, Tosh." Owen replied before the pair made their way back to Gwen and Rhys where the pair were smiling at the result of their dance mat battle. The result was a draw.

Owen decided that he may as well show of the money that he had won, although it wasn't much more than two pound at the most. Toshiko thought though that it was closer to about a pound.

"How did you win that, mate?" Rhys asked as he looked at the money and Owen pointed to Tosh.

"Logic actually works. I might try it sometime soon."

* * *

Ianto was aware that he was awake, but he didn't really feel like he was awake in a real world. Everything was blurred and slightly hazy. He was pretty sure now that he wasn't very well and that he was most likely running a fever.

His eyes managed to focus on Jack.

"Hey. How are you feeling now? Any better at all than yesterday?"

"Worse I think." Ianto replied as he lifted a hand to his burning forehead.

"I tried to do what I could while you were sleeping to keep you comfortable, so that you could stay asleep, but you woke up anyway."

"Thanks for trying though." Ianto replied as he rolled on to his side, so that he was facing Jack. The doorbell went and for a moment Ianto wondered who it could be ringing the doorbell in the middle of the night. So he looked over his shoulder at the window.

Day light or at least, the start of it.

"It's quarter to eight." Jack announced before making his way out of the room and down the stairs to open the door.

The post man got him to sign for a parcel that he had ordered (it was a new phone that was meant to be a present for Ianto to have as a gif just for being his boyfriend Jack supposed) before he closed the door and carried the parcel upstairs with him and handing it to Ianto.

"What's this?" He asked as he sat up carefully and looked at the cardboard box.

"Gift for you. I think you needed it." When Ianto had finally opened it he didn't stop thanking Jack for quite a while when he looked at the IPhone that had been in the box.

"I can't believe you did that for me. I can't believe that you just went and bought me a phone, an expensive phone at that!"

"You are worth it though," Jack paused wondering whether now was a good time to change subject, "I think that as soon as you are better again that we should go and see your Uncle again and let him now about what we have found out. Then we can get it sorted in court to get him out and he'll back you up with going to live with him."

When Ianto said nothing Jack spoke again, "Rhiannon wouldn't want you living with your Dad until you were eighteen."

Ianto was silent for another moment before he nodded his head slightly, "Yeah as soon as I'm better I think we should do that." A sense of some form of relief washed over Jack and he looked forward to a better future for all of them in the day that were to come.

* * *

Okay as I said before I will hopefully update a few more chapters soon, but anyway thanks for favouriting, alerting, reviewing and reading.


	25. Chapter 25

Alright onto chapter twenty five.

* * *

Monday saw Jack remain home with Ianto not willing to leave him alone while he was ill like this. He rang Toshiko and told them not to wait for the two of them. Let's just say that Tosh wasn't overly pleased.

"What have you done now Jack?" She asked when she picked up the phone.

"I haven't done anything," He replied, "Ianto isn't very well and neither am I, so we won't be in school today alright."

"Should I be wondering why the pair of you are both ill, on the same day and at the same time?"

"Look I met up with Ianto on Saturday and he wasn't feeling too well. I saw him again on Sunday and he stayed for tea and now neither of us are well, okay?"

He heard Toshiko sigh, "Fine I'll let everyone and the school know."

"Thanks Tosh." Jack put the phone down and looked down the stairs for no real reason he just did it - almost upon reaction – to check that the door was locked and that no one had just walked in while he had had his back turned and had been on the phone to Tosh.

Jack made his way back into the spare room where he had left Ianto and smiled at the younger, who was now sleeping once again.

* * *

Without Jack and Ianto the day seemed to go differently. Owen was incredibly bored and kept glaring at John finding something strange that he was almost continually smirking in his direction. At the end of the school day all that Owen really wanted was to go home and sleep, (one of his favourite things) but he refrained from doing so and instead walked around to Jack's house and knocked on the door.

It was Jack who answered, looking completely well to Owen, but then again he was no doctor – not yet at least.

"Alright? I'll just come in shall I?"

"Yeah sure," Jack replied stepping aside to let Owen in, "And yes, I am alright thank you."

"Good, what about Ianto? Is he feeling any better?" Owen asked curiously, guessing that Ianto would still be here.

"I think so, he's been sleeping for most of the day." Jack replied.

"Can I see him?" Owen asked as he opened his bag and pulled out a box of chocolates and a card.

"Yeah, but Ianto doesn't like chocolates." Jack told him as Owen headed up the stairs. Owen stopped and turned to face the American.

"The chocolates aren't for him they are for you." Owen threw him the box of chocolates and Jack caught them before making his way up behind Owen. Jack entered the room first and was slightly annoyed when Ianto opened his eyes and Jack thought that he had woken the younger up.

"Sorry I woke you."

"No I was already awake." Ianto replied before he pulled himself into a sitting position. Owen watched as Jack moved over to be by his side to help him. In Owen's opinion, Ianto looked more than just sick, bearing in mind that he also rarely ever got sick.

"Here," Owen extended his hand to give Ianto the card. Ianto took it from him and Owen watched as he looked at it carefully, "Alright Tosh, Gwen and Rhys signed it as well, but it was my idea overall and I bought it and I got you these." Owen said as he took a bag of green grapes out of his school bag.

Ianto took the grapes as well with a smile, "Thanks I like grapes."

"I heard that from Tosh, so I bought you those on my way home. Instead of getting you some chocolates like I got Jack." Owen replied as he chucked his bag down onto the floor and sat down on the carpet.

"Thanks. You never know they might just help me to feel better and the card of course." Ianto put the grapes down and opened the envelope that the card was in and opened it up to read the individual messages that the others that written for him.

"Don't I get a card?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, same one that Ianto's got, we wrote it for the both of you like you did for my birthday card. You know all couplely and all that," Ianto frowned and looked up at Owen and Jack did a similar thing before he started laughing, "What?"

"There is no such word as _'couplely,' _Owen." Ianto told him.

"And even if there was I don't think that I would like it. It doesn't sound right for a couple."

"Sorry I'll call it all couple like in future." Owen said it as if he meant it, but there was a smile behind it, a smile that told Ianto he had only used the fake word to make them smile.

Owen stayed with them for most of the evening before he went home claiming that he had homework to do that (in the end) wouldn't actually get done.

* * *

Jack had once again spent the night carefully watching Ianto and in the morning when the younger was no better he gave in and rang the number that doctor Smith had given him to phone in case he needed him for whatever reason.

"Hello."

"Hi, Doctor Smith, it's Jack."

"Ahh just John will do Jack. Now what can I help you with today? Is there a problem with Ianto?"

"No no, he's doing well I believe. He hasn't tried anything, but I was ringing you about a different thing, because you see he has a high fever and he has since – well a high temperature – since early Sunday morning. I tried looking after him yesterday, but nothing that I do seems to be working, so I was wondering whether you would be able to come around to mine and take a look."

"Of course, I'm working until lunch, but I can make my way over after if you can manage to keep his temperature as it is or lower. If it's a relatively basic illness then it should just drop down soon on its own, but keep a watch on it anyway just to be on the safe side."

"Okay thanks."

* * *

Owen was the only one who had seen Jack and Ianto. The others were glad that they were both alright, but Owen had decided not to mention the fact that Jack wasn't actually ill when he had seen him.

Owen was alone in both maths and in science and for his free lesson, but he was glad when it came to English when he had Toshiko to sit next to and talk to and the same thing in Russian with Gwen and Tosh.

* * *

Jack let the doctor in and showed him upstairs to the spare room. The doctor didn't ask any questions as to why Ianto was with Jack and not at home, but he knew well enough that he would later when he had sorted out Ianto's fever as that was a doctor's job.

Ianto was awake as he had been for the past hour almost, although he had been slightly delirious though at first and had almost blacked out a few times before everything in his mind had cleared again and he could think on more reasonable terms.

That was the first time thatJack had mentioned the doctors visit and Ianto hadn't complained as much as Jack had thought that he would, showing that the younger must be feeling worse than what he was saying he felt.

"Hello again, Ianto," Doctor Smith started as he entered the room, "Jack told me that you aren't very well." He then sat down on one of the chairs that Jack had brought up and Jack sat on the other, carefully slipping his hand into Ianto's.

"I told him that it started on Saturday when I saw you and you weren't very well," Jack said filling Ianto in on part of what he had said before he turned to the doctor, "He spent his time laughing at me for the past day and a bit when I was googling things to do for a fever." Ianto smiled slightly and Jack watched as John laughed at his comment.

"I can imagine that he would."

"So what's wrong with him? What caused his fever?"

"Slow down Jack," Ianto told him, "The poor doctor has only just got here and you are already nagging him."

"I prefer pestering." The American replied and Ianto rolled his eyes atJack's choice of term.

"Has he been eating anything?" Doctor Smith asked, interrupting their little conversation.

"Yeah up until today. We had pasta on Saturday, Chinese on Sunday, toast every morning for breakfast and he had grapes yesterday as well, but he didn't have any tea last night. He told me that he wasn't hungry. Same thing today, he wasn't hungry."

"He is still in the room." Ianto mumbled once Jack had finished speaking.

"What about being delirious or confused, paranoid even maybe. Has he had any of that?"

"Just a couple of hours ago he was delirious for a little while."

"Anything else?"

"Well he was blacking out a few times when he was delirious, but I put it down to him not having eaten anything. Is that wrong?"

"No that could be one explanation for it. Ianto may I have a look at the back of your head please?" Ianto shuffled around, so that he was at an angle that the Doctor could reach his head clearly to see whatever he thought he was looking for.

Jack watched as the doctor went about his work and engaged in some small basic conversation.

"We have a friend called Owen who wants to be a doctor when he is older."

"Ah well it's a good job you see." Doctor Smith replied before frowning slightly as he moved away from looking at Ianto's head.

"Is there something wrong?" Jack asked, worried and confused.

"Well there are defiantly signs of head trauma, which could explain the blackouts or they could also be, because he hasn't eaten anything which is even more likely if they have only started today."

"But couldn't the head trauma have caused the fever?"

"It could well have, but at the minute there is no proven correlation between the two. I'll check for any inflammatory anywhere. Mouth open." Ianto followed the instructions that he was given and then Doctor Smith seemed to come to a conclusion after retaking Ianto's temperature.

"I reckon that from this Ianto is suffering from a form of hyperthermia called heat exhaustion. That could be because of the head trauma or because of a different reason, although Ianto looks to me too be quite a bit underweight. That would put stress on his body and elevated stress can up body temperatures."

"So you don't think that it is anything overly drastic?" Jack asked after the doctor had finished is explanation.

"It could be and it still could become dangerous, but from what you told me and looking at the temperatures he's had previously when you have taken then, it seems to be going down which is a good sign that it is nothing overly major which is quite lucky. As usually people who come into A and E who have head trauma also have some form of memory loss or temporary amnesia."

"Ianto has had none of that believe me." Jack replied, glad that it hadn't been worse. He could just imagine how he would feel if he woke up one morning to find that Ianto had no clue as to who he was.

"I suggest that you keep him off school for another few days, because although his fever will have probably left him by tomorrow I highly doubt that he will feel up to doing that much, so I think maybe going back to school on Thursday would be alright, but it depends on how he feels of course."

"Right, got that, thanks." Jack was almost at the door when the doorbell rang and he jumped down the last few to answer it, the doctor following along behind him. Jack was surprised to see Owen at the door with yet another box of chocolates which Jack presumed were – once again – for him.

Strange since he hadn't even eaten the first lot yet as he had only had two of them last night.

"Hey, I'm coming in," Owen walked in and then stopped to look at the doctor, "Who is this?"

"Owen, this is Doctor John Smith, he came to check up on Ianto's fever."

"I was going to ask how is it?"

"Going down." Jack answered simply.

"Good," Owen replied just as simply before turning his attention to the doctor while extending a hand, "Owen Harper. I want to be a doctor when I'm older."

"Jack said," He replied as he took Owen's hand and shook it, "Nice to meet you Owen Harper."

"Thanks again for coming to see him at such short notice."

"You're welcome," He paused for a moment, "If he is well enough I suppose I will see you Thursday evening?"

"Yeah I think that we can manage that," Jack was aware of Owen watching him carefully after he had shut the door, so he pointed to the chocolates, "I don't think that I need any more of them. I haven't managed to eat the first lot yet."

"There not for you Jack, they are for me instead," Owen told him, "God I need them after the day that I have had really you wouldn't believe it."

"Wouldn't I."

"No you wouldn't. Now is Ianto still upstairs, I brought him some more grapes."

"He won't eat them. He's not hungry." Jack told him, however Owen wasn't listening as he made his way up the stairs. Jack followed up behind him and found that Owen had sat on a chair rather than the floor this time and that he had already given Ianto the grapes, who was – to Jack's surprise – attempting to eat some of them.

"So this fever."

"Getting better," Ianto replied, "Thanks for the grapes by the way."

"Jack said you wouldn't eat them."

"Yeah I wasn't hungry earlier, but now that you have given me these I am."

"Don't you have any from yesterday still?" Jack asked as he sat down and pinched one of Owen's chocolates, which only succeeded in getting him a glare from the said person.

"No I ate them all yesterday evening."

"Any way Owen, what were you going to tell me about your day at the wonderful world of school?"

"Well without you too I have been-" Owen told them everything that they had missed and then left the pair alone for the evening.

* * *

In the morning Jack found that Ianto was already awake when he went into see him and that he was reading a book.

"Hey, how are you feeling this morning?"

"Better." Jack took his temperature anyway just to check that and was glad to see that it had gone down quite a bit.

"Do you want to see your Uncle today or wait until tomorrow?"

"Can we see him later today?"

"Sure, I'll get breakfast." Jack headed downstairs and he would have walked straight passed the living room had he not noticed that Rhiannon's diary was still there. He walked in and picked it up, carrying it out to the kitchen with him.

He was flicking through it while he made coffee and toast. Rhiannon had written accounts for every single day without any gaps between the dates. It was her way of writing about the things her Dad did that got Jack when he read it, but then when it came down to it her diary was another piece of proof.

Suddenly Jack found himself wondering whether the reason that Rhiannon had told Ianto that she was keeping that diary was a lie and that there had been a different reason entirely that she had kept it. A reason that she knew may help both her and Ianto if it ever came down to it.

When Jack told Ianto this later, the younger seemed to wonder on this as well. The pair of them set out later to talk to Ianto's Uncle who was surprised to see them at such an early time in the day. One of the first things that he seemed to notice were the marks around Ianto's neck, so Ianto turned his collar up to try and hide them.

"We have something to ask you." Jack started, breaking the silence that had been created.

"Go on." The man replied.

"If we could get you out of here," Ianto started, "And providing that we could win custody, do you think that it would be alright for me to stay with you."

"You mean like permanently live with me?"

"Yeah."

"I'm happy with that, but there is no way that you can get me out of here."

"Take a look at this." Jack said as he slipped the photograph that he had found the other day over the table to him. Dafydd Lewis looked over the picture carefully before he looked up at Ianto.

"I knew it. You knew it."

"So will you help us to get his Dad done for abuse and get him to be able to live with you?" Jack asked.

"Yes. Yes I will." Ianto smiled and stood up at hearing that and his Uncle did the same.

Jack stayed sat down and watched as the pair of them hugged each other as if they had been Father and son. The American smiled as well and wondered what Ianto's life could have been like had his Uncle been his Father.

But maybe that could still change, all that they needed was a brilliant case to stand against everything that they had proof of and take down the only thing that stood in the way of Ianto's life and future.

* * *

Okay as promised next chapter will be Tuesday evening or Wednesday, but I hope that you enjoy this one. Thanks for favouriting, alerting, reviewing and reading.


	26. Chapter 26

Okay I am going to London for the Olympics on the train tomorrow, so I hope to write a few more chapters while I'm travelling there and back and in the meantime up there, but it does mean that I won't be able to update again to Saturday like normal.

* * *

I also hope to manage to update Four Senses by this evening as well. Also I should be able to go back to my normal updating times after this weekend, so I hope you like chapter twenty six.

Ianto had stayed at Jack's on Thursday instead of going to school to think. Jack went back to school just to make it seem like he wasn't skiving or something and so that he and Ianto didn't both return on the same day.

Ianto let the TV stay on for most of the day and he just sat there - mindlessly - not really taking any notice of it.

By the end of his time alone he had watched through hours of;_ Come Dine with Me_; _Cowboy Builders_;_ Under the Hammer_; _Cash in the Attic_; _Dickinson's Real Deal_ as well as repeats of _Strictly Come Dancing_ and another of Owen's favourite shows, _Take me Out_.

Of course none of what he had watched had interested him in the least and nor had he even liked most of them, however they provided him with good background noise.

* * *

Jack had missed Ianto throughout the entire day as well as worrying for the younger who was alone in a house that wasn't his own, although Jack was sure that Ianto knew where everything was and he had even written out what was in his cupboards and fridge for him.

In German it hadn't been too bad having the company of Toshiko and Owen, who were once again talking happily and sitting close to one another.

But in English he was quite lonely as he didn't have Ianto to sit next to. Or to help him understand the film version of 'Of Mice And Men' since he hake missed the beginning of it while he was away.

One thing he did get though was the part where one of the guys crushed the bones in one of the others hands and there was an awful lot of fake blood shown, so when everyone else looked away in shock and in horror, - except for Jack, Owen and their teacher - Jack was still too busy trying to work out who was who in this film.

Maths had been a lot more fun as Owen had tried his best to cheer him up and get him not to worry about Ianto for a bit. It was also when their teacher told them that he was leaving just before the end of the year.

His Re and Geography lessons followed a similar course of boring. During his last lesson though a note was brought to him. Jack read over it before turning his attention back to Geography.

At the end of day Jack headed over to the History office to see Ianto's History teacher as he had asked to do by the note that he had been given. The man gave him a small smile, but it quickly faded.

"Do you happen to know where Ianto is?" He asked.

"Yeah he's not very well at the minute he should be back in tomorrow I think, why?"

"Well he has a history project due in today, but if he isn't here then that's different. You couldn't give him a message for me could you?"

"What is this message?"

"That I'll have his History project whenever he is next in school, okay." The teacher told him before turning to walk away, however Jack managed to stop him.

"Ah, there may be a small problem with that."

"What problem?"

"Well I know that Ianto hasn't actually done it," Jack could tell that the man was about to say something, so he cut in front of him, "But there's a good reason as to why he hasn't done it, really there is."

"Oh and what would that be?" The teacher folded his arms across his chest and Jack took a deep breath before saying his next piece of speech.

"Just to clarify, which History project is this?"

* * *

Jack walked through the door and chucked his stuff down before calling out to Ianto to see where he was. The younger was in the living room and Jack gave him a smile as he walked in, but Ianto seemed to sense that something wasn't quite right.

"What's wrong?" He asked as Jack sat down on the sofa next to him.

"Oh school wasn't too bad, boring without you, but I lived. Your History teacher spoke to me and asked me to ask for you to give in your project on your family history."

"Oh, I haven't done it. What did you tell him?"

"I told him that you hadn't done it, simple as."

"Why did you tell him that?" Ianto asked shocked.

"Alright I won't tell you what he said then." Jack replied, Ianto was silent for a moment before he replied.

"Well what did he say then?"

"No you didn't want to know, so I am not going to tell you."

"Aww Jack come on I have a right to know. It concerns me though."

"You didn't want to know!"

"I never said that!"

"Alright you didn't say in it those words, but-"

"Jack."

"Alright I was just saying that you said-" Jack didn't get to finish his sentence before he was glared at by Ianto and dared to say no more on any of the past subject.

"Tell me what he said now." Ianto demanded.

"Okay he said that you don't have to do it." Jack told him.

"I knew he would- wait he said what?"

"You don't have to it." Jack replied, unsure as to how that could have possibly been unclear to Ianto the first time.

"But he would never have said that, every project or assignment that he sets us has to be done."

"Not when you have a Jack to talk teachers out of making you do it for you."

"How? I mean what did you tell him?"

"I just told him that you hadn't been very well and that you couldn't really do it at the minute, because too much was going on concerning your life outside of school – don't panic or worry I didn't go into major details with him." Jack could see Ianto visibly relax when he added that part.

"Then I just explained that you weren't focussing on homework, that you weren't in the right state of mind and that too much stress and pressure wasn't going to help you and he said to tell you not to worry and if you have the time to do it by the end of the year then do, but if you can't then it isn't overly majorly important that you do it." The older concluded and Ianto smiled at him after a second before thanking him.

"Oh yeah and I forgot I needed to give you this as well." Jack pulled an envelope out of his pocket and handed it to Ianto with a smile.

"What is it?"

"Open it." Ianto seemed slightly unsure as he carefully opened the envelope. Jack noticed that he didn't rip the envelope while he was opening it like he would have.

Removing the letter from the envelope, Ianto read over it before looking up at Jack as if asking him if what he was reading was actually right. Jack nodded his head and Ianto looked back down at the letter, then back up at Jack before throwing his arms around the others neck.

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me I didn't do it!"

"No, but you must have done something."

"Well I did go and see your Uncle this morning to see if anything was happening and he let me know a bit, but he was the one that pushed for it."

"But this means that it's in a few weeks." Ianto said when he realised.

"Yeah, so as soon as he is clear you can have a child custody trail and your Uncle can win and you can live with him and then-"

"Slow down Jack we haven't even gotten that far yet!"

"Sorry I'm being Optimistic."

"Too optimistic, Jack."

"You can never be too optimistic." Jack said.

"I think that you can." Ianto replied.

* * *

Later that evening, Jack lead Ianto into the support group meeting and the pair sat down and waited until it started. This week another new person joined them and they talked on bullying on a more up front and personal level.

More physical than cyber bullying could ever be. Jack inputted quite a few things and Ianto was shocked that he had never heard them told to him before, but one thing that he did notice was that they were all to do with John.

Doctor Smith thanked Jack for all of his input before some of the others started to speak, all of them inspired by what Jack had told them to tell their own stories before Doctor Smith asked them for ideas on things that they could do to get it stopped.

"You could tell your parents." The new person inputted before Jack spoke up again.

"Why stop there though?" It was meant as a rhetorical question for the time and no one answered, so as not to miss what he was about to say next, "You could tel your favourite teacher, other family members, your friends, I don't know maybe a boyfriend or girlfriend." Everyone seemed to agree with him.

The rest of the session continued on with more things that you could do to stop someone and a range more of stories. Ianto still told no one nothing, however none of the group seemed to hold that against him and still gave him a cheery goodbye when they left past the pair.

Jack grabbed Ianto's arm to pull him back a second before making his way over towards Doctor John Smith.

"Yes Jack, Ianto, how can I help the pair of you tonight?"

"Could you look at something for me?" Jack asked.

"Sure what is it?" The doctor turned to face him and Jack pointed to Ianto.

"His neck, the bruising around it, I need to know how serious that is." The doctor moved to have a look before asking why.

"Can I ask how Ianto managed to get this kind of bruising?"

"Ianto, you need a doctor to help fight a case." Jack said simply and Ianto looked at him before sighing.

"My Dad is abusive." It was all that he said, but it was enough. Jack smiled at him, proud that he had managed to say just that small amount on the subject, so he told the doctor the rest.

That night Jack talked to Ianto about telling the others and letting them be aware of it to. Simply because they were his friends and they could be extra back up support for him. After all they now had a doctor on their side as well as Ianto's Uncle, Rhiannon's diary and Ianto's very own word against the man.

It had taken an awful lot of time to convince him, however in the end Ianto had agreed to tell them which put another smile on Jack's face. And that night he was pretty sure that he slept relatively peacefully for once.

* * *

The next morning Jack and Ianto were sat walking to school when Owen ran up behind them. If Ianto hadn't heard his footsteps before he reached them then he was sure that both he and Jack would have jumped. Owen seemed slightly upset that they didn't.

"Morning Jack. Alright Ianto? I assume that you are feeling better now since you are braving to return to school." Owen said.

"Yeah." Ianto replied as they continued walking.

"Friday though I mean what a day to come back to school. I would have just stayed off you know had a longer weekend and all that. Something like that would have suited me brilliantly."

"Yes Owen that would suit you, but Ianto is a very different person to you now isn't he." Jack commented and for the rest of the walk to school it ended up raining.

"Typical isn't it," Rhys started as he and Gwen walked into the school building, "It is just typical that I don't bring a coat and it rains it's just typical." Gwen was giggling as she stood beside Rhys, rainwater dripping off of her coat and not her.

Toshiko was just glad that her laptop had remained dry in the suddenly torrential showers.

"Ianto do you think that there is any chance I can keep my laptop in your locker please?" Toshiko asked politely.

"Sure Tosh." Ianto replied before moving to open it for her before taking her laptop from her and placing it inside, locking it again afterwards.

"Thanks Ianto."

"You are most welcome, Tosh." He told her as they started to walk down the corridors, Jack, Owen, Gwen and Rhys following along behind them.

Ianto silently cheered when he walked into art to see that John wasn't actually there or though Ianto was sure that he had seen him earlier this morning, but at that moment he couldn't care where the other was, because he really wasn't interested.

At break time the group were forced to sit inside, because of the rain. Ianto took Tosh's laptop back out of his locker and handed it over to her. She gave him a smile in return before they joined the others.

Until lunch time the rest of the day happened to go relatively boringly. At lunch Jack disappeared for a while and Tosh continued to work on some of her homework. Gwen stayed with her and after a while Rhys, Dav and Banana came over to join them all.

Owen and Ianto decided to wonder around and look for Jack since they had nothing better to do. One thing that Ianto noticed was that it was no longer raining outside. Owen was prattling on – rather mindlessly if you asked Ianto – about nothing in particular when they saw Andy running towards them.

"You have to come outside and see this." He told them.

"Sorry we are looking for Jack." Owen replied before moving to walk past him.

"Have you seen Jack?" Ianto asked as Owen pulled him down the corridor, stopping when Ianto finished his question and turning back round to face Andy.

"Yeah, outside, now come on you have to see this." Owen and Ianto glanced at each other before finally deciding to follow Andy outside to see what he was on about. When they did see what he had been talking about they finally knew where Jack had gotten to.

On the netball courts a massive crowd had gathered, made up of students from all different year groups ranging all the way up from year seven to year eleven with most of them clapping their hands and shouting _'fight, fight, fight' _out loud at the tops of their voices.

Andy looked over at them and pointed to the people who were actually fighting each other. Ianto sighed the moment that he saw them and Owen gave a simple, "Oh God, what is he doing now."

"How long has this been going on for?" Ianto asked Andy.

"Well it started about a minute before I ran into get you guys, so two maybe three minutes."

"And there are no casualties yet," Owen started with a slight nod of his head and raise of his eyebrows, "Well I suppose it's a start."

"Don't speak to soon Owen." Ianto said just as the first major punch was thrown.

"Typical." Owen muttered as he stepped down from his viewpoint and ran around to the entrance onto the netball courts. Ianto moved to follow him as Andy called something out to the pair of them, but neither of them were actually paying any attention to him as they pushed their way through the crowd to get to Jack.

Jack who was busy fighting John for whatever reason that Owen and Ianto weren't aware of at this moment in time. Owen tried to get between the pair of them, however that didn't really seem to be working. By now Andy had run over to join them and followed some of the signals that Ianto was giving him about trying to help Owen.

Andy moved over towards Jack and tried to pull him away from John, while Ianto tried to pull John away from Jack. Eventually Owen managed to push the pair apart and Andy and Ianto were able to pull the other back and away.

John grabbed Ianto's left arm and twisted it around behind his back. Ianto yelled out, but even that didn't hide the definite click that came from somewhere. Jack was free of Andy's grip in a second and Owen couldn't grab him in time to stop him diving off over towards his ex-boyfriend and his current boyfriend.

Owen followed him as quickly as he could. Jack tackled John, pushing him down to the ground, forcing him to let go of his grip on Ianto, who fell forward into Owen's arms since he had moved forward to originally back Jack up or stop him, however when he saw Jack tackle John he had known that he would need to grab Ianto.

Andy had stood still on the spot watching, not really sure as to what he should do to help or whether there was even anything that he could do to help. He saw Gwen, Rhys and Tosh appear out of the corner of his eye and then some teachers rushing over to join them.

The students who noticed shut up and ran off as quickly as they could, but the ones who didn't see were caught red handed spurring on the fight.

My Tyler, Mrs Campbell and Mr Magny soon managed to break up the fight between Jack and John and get the rest of the students to go to class, but not before they had taken a list of the names of all of them.

Jack stood up and backed away from John who watched him carefully. Jack stepped back to be stood with Owen and Ianto, moving so that he had an obviously strong hold on Ianto to show John who was soon forced to leave to go to his last lesson.

Toshiko, Gwen and Rhys were forced to leave to, so that they could head off to their science lesson. Owen looked to Jack and Jack looked back to Owen before deciding from glancing at each other to head of home an hour early.

They were given permission to, following on from that fight and the three of them made their way back to Jack's house. The American chucked Owen the keys to his front door and Owen unlocked it while Jack kept his grip on Ianto before they all made their way inside the massive house.

Jack carefully sat Ianto down on the sofa and left to get him a glass of water from the kitchen as well as his first aid kit. He sat down on the floor and handed the first aid kit to Owen, who chucked him back a load of plasters for the scrapes that now covered his hands from when he had tackled John on to the floor.

Owen was looking at Ianto's arm making his way up it to his shoulder when he couldn't find any source of what had been the click.

"I reckon you have dislocated your shoulder." Owen told no one in particular.

"Well do something then." Jack said.

"No, I'm not going to, because one I am not a Doctor, but two it looks very out of place if you ask me. It looks very square. If it's sat in the socket then it should be round."

"So what do you suggest we do?" Jack asked, "Take him to see a doctor. Because we could do that, we could take him to see Doctor Smith."

"The doctor who was round here the other day?" Owen asked.

"Yeah him." Jack replied - already pre-empting that Owen's answer to taking Ianto to see a doctor would be a yes – as he started to help Ianto to get up onto this feet, steadying the youngers balance for him well aware of the pain that a dislocated shoulder could cause someone.

They took the late night bus out to St Helens Hospital and headed inside. Owen talked to the receptionist, while Ianto looked half asleep and Jack asked if they could see Doctor Smith.

"I'm sorry, but he is busy with other patients right now, we will get a doctor from are A and E department to come and see you."

"But you don't understand, he said that we could see him any time as long as he wasn't in surgery or something."

"I'm sorry, but I can't let you just jump before all of the people that are waiting." The receptionist had only just finished speaking when doctor Smith walked in with another doctor.

"Oh Jack, I'm surprised at seeing you again," He looked over to Ianto, "Is he alright? Fever again?"

"No he recovered from that."

"Okay well let me take a look at whatever is wrong then. I was meant to finish ten minutes ago, so I don't mind staying a bit later."

"Thanks." Jack replied as they followed the doctor through to his office where he looked over it before getting it x-rayed. Ianto, Jack and Owen sat in the doctor's office until he brought back the results of that, showing that nothing major had been broke or pulled out of place, but that it was at the relatively serious area of shoulder dislocations.

He carefully put it in a sling for Ianto before giving Jack some instructions to follow to help it heal quicker.

"So can I ask how this happened?"

"I was in a fight he tried to help me and he got injured," Jack explained simply, "It was nothing to do with you know what." The doctor nodded in his understand seeming to get that Owen hadn't been told.

"Ah okay," He turned his attention to Owen next, "So you know you said that you wanted to be a doctor when you were older." Owen nodded.

"Well maybe you can come in a few days in your next holiday and see some of the things that we deal with."

"Yeah, I would like that." Owen replied happily forgetting whatever Jack had been trying to tell the doctor without telling him.

When they did finally get back to Jack's house though he really did say something.

"Alright, what was that about?"

Jack and Ianto looked between each other before Jack said, "Do you want to tell him or am I telling him?"

* * *

Okay, so my next update should be on Saturday. Thanks for favouriting, alerting, reviewing and reading.


	27. Chapter 27

Okay now onto chapter twenty seven. Thank you so much for all of the reviews, favourites and alerts so far on this story.

* * *

As Owen stared between the pair of them, Ianto was sure that he could be burning holes right through them if he stared any more intensely than he already was (if of course, that was even possible for someone of normal human level to achieve.)

"You." Ianto eventually mumbled and Jack nodded his head.

"Why don't you go and put the TV on yeah." He suggested to Ianto, who then headed into the living room to do just that. Jack carefully pulled the door shut behind him and turned to face Owen, who was watching the room carefully.

"Are you sure that's wise?" He asked.

"Yeah. Why wouldn't it be?" Jack asked.

"Well you know, with the whole suici-" Jack cut him off.

"He's over it, so don't say anything about it."

"I'm just saying that it takes time and-"

"Don't say anything on the subject, Owen. He's over it, I'm sure."

"Alright," Owen paused a moment before speaking again, "Okay go on then, tell me."

Jack took in a deep breath and thought of the best way to say this, but in the end he made his decision and spoke, "Ianto's Dad is abusive."

"Seriously!" Owen exclaimed. Jack nodded to let him know that he had defiantly heard him right, "God Jack why didn't you or he say anything before! Bloody hell have you told the police yet" You need to-"

"Owen listen to me. Ianto only told me about it on Saturday, so I have only known about this for five days. No we haven't told the police just yet, but we have proof for what we are saying and standing against."

"God I wish he had said something to us before now. He must have been in so much pain."

"I know, I wish that he had told us sooner to, but you know we could have asked for all of this time." The hall went silent as the pair let their conversation fully sink in.

"I feel like such an idiot," Owen said breaking the silence, "Do Toshiko, Gwen and Rhys know yet?"

"No you are the first," Jack replied, "Although we do plan on telling them. But you can't say a word of this to anyone."

"Promise." Owen replied, signing a deal not not speak of it unless he was told to.

"Maybe we can arrange to see the others tomorrow." Jack suggested and Owen nodded his head while pulling his mobile phone out of his pocket.

"I'll contact them now." He said as he brought up Toshiko's number to make the first phone call to her.

* * *

Rhys was the first to arrive at Jack's after his Dad dropped him off. Gwen followed shortly after with Tosh in tow, both of who had walked along to Jack's in order to meet them.

Owen had arrived earlier than all of them. He had gone home late last night and come back the next morning after a few hours' worth of sleep had been had.

When he had entered the house in the morning he had found Ianto complaining about having his shoulder in a sling – even though it wouldn't be for too long – a week at the most.

"How long has he been complaining for?" Owen asked as he walked into the kitchen area,.

"Only a few minutes. He has a right and the whole thing was my fault after all remember," Jack turned to face Owen, "Coffee, tea? I can do either," He offered.

"Um yeah, I'll go for tea, thanks." Owen replied.

"I would have gone for water or instant coffee if I was you Owen." Ianto finally chipped something in to the conversation.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Ianto had some of my tea earlier."

"Yeah I don't usually have sugar in my tea either. But let me tell you that it took me three teaspoonful of it to it taste alright."

"Well I usually have two anyway, but is that's the case than I might end up needed five of them."

When all of them were at Jack's house they headed out to the cinema.

Owen was the one who got to choose the film. He chose a horror film in the end which succeeded in scaring Gwen, Toshiko and even Ianto, who shuffled closer to Jack. By the end of it even Rhys looked slightly scared.

As they left the cinema, Jack talked to Ianto and the pair decided that Owen was never choosing the film again. The group headed outside and then went into the bowling arena. They played in three teams. Owen and Toshiko, Gwen and Rhys and Jack and Ianto.

At the beginning it was Toshiko and Gwen who were doing well, while Ianto and Jack struggled, because of Ianto not having two available hands to bowl with, although Jack seemed to be doing alright without Ianto having to do too much.

Gwen and Rhys were in the lead in the seventh round, however that was also the round when Toshiko managed to get a strike – the first one of their team game so far - and pull herself and Owen into the lead. Jack also managed to achieve a strike in that round, although it still kept them in third place.

In the eighth round though things began to change and Jack and Ianto managed to steadily accumulate more points by the time that t onto the last and final round of the game. In that last round both Jack and Ianto managed to get strikes and that managed to give them the highest score allowing them to then win the game together.

After they had cheered for a few minutes they started a new game, however this time they muddled the teams up, so that Ianto ended up with Toshiko, Gwen ended up with Owen and Jack with Rhys.

Owen and Gwen won the second round and the group muddled the teams a third time, so that they consisted of Jack and Owen, Toshiko and Gwen and Ianto and Rhys. Tosh and Gwen won the third round, making Gwen the overall single winner as she was the only one out of them all to have won two out of the three games.

After those three they had one more. Although this time they put themselves into two teams of three people each. Gwen, Owen and Rhys formed one team and they went against Jack, Ianto and Toshiko.

Owen almost threw a fit when he lost and Jack's team won, although Jack did then volunteer to buy him a glass of coke a cola or lemonade and that seemed to calm him down a bit more. They were all sat down drinking something that Jack had bought for them about five minutes later.

Ianto and Toshiko were both drinking lemonade. Gwen had Fanta and Jack, Owen and Rhys all had coke. It was Owen who grabbed Ianto at one point and took him over into the arcade area, but Ianto had no idea as to why he had done that.

Jack took a deep breath while Tosh, Gwen and Rhys watched the pair of them walk away.

"What are we doing now, playing some arcade games?" Rhys asked curiously.

"No we are not." Jack replied.

"But Owen and Ianto are-" Gwen started, but only to have Jack cut across her before she could even finish her sentence and question.

"Owen and Ianto are going to play some of the arcade games for a couples of minutes, because I have something very important that I need to tell you three, however I thought that it would be easier if Ianto wasn't here when I told you all."

"What is it, Jack?" Tosh asked.

"Okay you have to remember to keep the volume down since we are in a bowling arena."

"Oh just tell us Captain Suspense." Rhys said annoyed at waiting to be told whatever it was that Jack had planned to tell them.

"Okay, well Ianto's Dad is abusive," Jack paused there knowing that he would receive a lot of shocked faces and noise from the other three (which he did,) but he managed to keep the noise to a minimum and lower the three of them back into near silence a few moments later.

"Ianto only told me a week ago and I didn't tell you all straight away, because it wasn't right for me to tell you without talking to Ianto about it first, since it was his thing to tell you really, but he wasn't overly keen on doing so. Which is why know with his permission I am telling you."

"But what about Owen?" Gwen asked, "Doesn't he know about this?"

"Ianto let me tell him last night," Jack looked carefully at the looks that he received from that comment, "Only, because of a situation and we couldn't really avoid telling him, so we sort of had to do so to avoid lying or having an even worse situation on our hands. That is also why Gwen, Owen has taken Ianto out of are hearing range, because he already knows."

"Okay." Gwen replied before looking down at the floor, her shoes and her feet, not really knowing where else she should place her eyes to look. She was aware of the fact that Toshiko seemed to be thinking deeply and Rhys looked slightly shocked.

Carefully Rhys sought out her hand and she took it without raising her eyes gaze. Toshiko spoke shortly after that after having some sort of brain wave, thought, sudden realization or whatever you wanted to call it.

"But his suicide attempt was that..." She trailed off, however after gulping down growing the lump in her throat, she managed to continue her trail of speech, "Was that, because of you know what you just told us?" She finally managed to ask.

"Partly," Jack replied, "Although there were a few other factors involved in it as well not just that on its own, but yes it did contribute something to it."

"Poor Ianto." Gwen said, although she had still yet to raise her eyes from looking down at the floor of the bowling place's café.

"Where is he staying at the moment?" Rhys asked curiously, "Because we have an extra room at our house if he needs somewhere to stay for a while."

"Thanks Rhys, but it's alright, he is staying with me for the time being, although I might take you up on that offer if things change."

"Change how?" Toshiko asked, now becoming slightly worried.

"I fear that Ianto's Dad knows where I live and that he may come after Ianto." That caused Gwen to pull her head up.

"What makes you think that?" Gwen then asked curiously.

"John told his Dad about my relationship with Ianto and he has not only and abusive Dad, but a homophobic Dad as well and I'm also worried as to what else John has told him or will tell him in the future."

"John?" Rhys asked. Jack nodded.

"But how did he know to talk to Ianto's Dad?" Toshiko asked, "I mean how did John know Ianto's address or anything like that. And how did he know that Ianto's Dad was homophobic?"

"I have no idea and neither does Ianto," Jack told them, "But that is the whole part of the problem. John could be more dangerous than we thought and Ianto's Dad is dangerous – we already know that much – but together they could be quite dangerous. I mean Ianto's Dad can sit home and then John can just update him about what happened during the whole day while Ianto was at school. The man wouldn't miss a thing."

"Well if you ever need somewhere for Ianto to stay or to go just for the day or even for the both of you to do either of those two options then you are always welcome at mine as I highly doubt that John knows my address. My parents wouldn't mind and you could have the spare room to share, as I don't think you too would mind sharing a room." Rhys told Jack.

"Thank you Rhys for that offer and as I said before I may have a reason to take you up on that offer in the future." That was the moment when Ianto and Owen walked back and sat down. The minute that Ianto had walked over to the table, Toshiko and Gwen were both on their feet and Tosh hugged Ianto before going to sit back down. Gwen did the same.

When Ianto sat down he presumed that Jack had already told them about the whole thing with his Dad.

"Are you alright, pet?" Gwen asked him and Ianto nodded his reply, because at this moment in time he was absolutely fine.

"So Ianto, shall we tell the rest of the story together?" Jack asked his boyfriend from across the table, "You know the good, better, looking up part of the story that may shed some light on the situation in front of everyone at this table at the current minute?"

"There's a good side?" Owen asked confused.

"You haven't heard this part yet, Owen, none of you have. Except for Ianto and I of course, otherwise we wouldn't be able to tell you."

"Alright then, what news is this?" Gwen asked, trying to make herself look a little bit more cheery than she had been looking before hand, since Jack had said that this would be a more cheery tale.

"Ianto has an Uncle." Jack announced while all eyes quickly flew over to face in Ianto's direction, waiting for him to do something or say something to them.

"Yeah my Uncle, Dafydd Lewis." Ianto replied not adding a crucial piece of information.

"So why haven't you gone to live with him?" Owen asked.

"Because he's in prison, Owen," Jack told the group who suddenly looked shocked again and both Jack and Ianto thought that they could tell what the four of them were thinking, so Jack added, "He's really nice and he's not in prison for a reason that you would think – well actually he is, but it wasn't actually him that did it."

"So what is he in there for then?" Toshiko asked.

"The supposed murder of my older Sister, Rhiannon." Ianto informed them before explaining the whole story to clear it up for them all. A little while later, Ianto and Jack had the support of Toshiko, Gwen, Owen and Rhys for the case of trying to get Ianto's Uncle released from prison.

The group were all talking on a different subject when they spilt up to all go home. Jack raced Ianto back to his house and it was Ianto in the end that won, although only by a few seconds though. However Jack did have to admit that Ianto was very fast and good at running.

* * *

Sunday morning saw the pair make another trip to the prison to see Ianto's Uncle. While they were there the prison staff told them of a meeting that would be happening today, referencing to Ianto's Uncle, so the pair of them were allowed to go to that if they wanted to or had the time to do so today.

Jack gave Ianto the choice and he chose to stay for the meeting, which would have been Jack's choice and preference if it was him who had to make the decision. After waiting for about fifthteen minutes, some guards walked through with Ianto's Uncle and both he and Jack stood up and followed them into the room before sitting down on the three chairs that had been put out for them.

Ianto ended up sat in the middle of the pair, with Jack on his right and his Uncle on his left. A minute later a very posh looking man in a suit walked in through the door with his black briefcase in hand.

He sat down on the opposite side of the table and then proceeded to sort out some of his paper work and put it down on the table before placing both of his hands clasped in front of him and looked at the three of them in the eye, although his gaze was more focussed on Ianto's Uncle rather than Ianto and Jack.

"Okay, so Mr Lewis I presume?"

"Yes." Ianto's Uncle replied and the other man nodded.

"Matthew Taylor." He extended a hand out to Dafydd who took it and they shook hands before getting down to the actual business reason as to why they were here.

"Alright so you would like to have a court trail here for being falsely accused of murder three years ago. Is that correct?"

"Yes it is." Ianto's Uncle replied.

"Right well may I have a recount of the story please." The man asked. Both Ianto and Jack listened as Ianto's Uncle recapped the tale of Rhiannon's wedding day from his point of view and every event that had happened from how his eyes had viewed them.

"Okay do we have any other evidence that any of you would like to put forward now?" Mr Taylor asked.

Ianto took Rhiannon's diary off of Jack now and opened it to the back. From the back he took the picture that Jack had first discovered out and handed it to his Uncle who then slid it across the table to the Lawyer. Mr Taylor looked at it before placing it on the table and asking Ianto's Uncle a few questions.

"And who is this in the photo?" He pointed to Ianto's Dad.

"My Nephew, Ianto's, father."

"Can you confirm this, Ianto?" The Lawyer asked turning to him.

"Yes I can." Ianto replied.

"And who owned this car?"

"It belonged to Johnny – the man that Rhiannon married – they left in the car and crashed when the brakes didn't work."

Matthew Taylor nodded, "Yes that would add up with what you have told me already," Silence fell for a moment while the Lawyer seemed to think a few things over, "Okay, yes, I think that I can fight this for you. It proves to be a valid case and I believe that if it went ahead we may find quite a few things that hadn't been considered before hand or even noticed."

"Thank you very much." Mr Lewis said after Mr Taylor had concluded.

"You're welcome."

"Can I ask something?" Jack said since they had now concluded one conversation.

"Of course."

"Would we be able to fight two cases at the same time?" Both Ianto and Dafydd's eyes turned to face Jack and Ianto mouthed something, but Jack blanked it for the time being.

"It would depend on what two cases they were, but yes, you can fight two cases at one time. Why may I ask?" Matthew Taylor answered.

"Well we sort of have two cases that need sorting out," Jack paused to wait for the Lawyer to flag him on to continue speaking. Once he had, Jack carried on, "We have this case and we have a child custody case."

Mr Taylor looked to Ianto and his Uncle when Jack said this before Jack spoke again, "So could we do those cases at the same time?"

"It would of course depend on who are involved in that case, but yes if we book the court times to run straight through then yes a child custody case can run alongside a murder case," He paused while he turned to look over at the only adult in the room apart from himself of course, "Would you like me to be your Lawyer for this case as well?"

"Yes. I think that would be a good idea." Dafydd Lewis replied before placing his hands onto the table.

"Right well who is involved in this case then?" He asked his question to all of them, but Jack pointed over to Ianto and Ianto's Uncle thought it a good idea to let Ianto do the talking for this one.

"Talk to Ianto." Jack said. Ianto mouthed something to him and Jack mouthed something back before it became a small battle of whispering until Ianto finally decided to give in and start talking.

"Me and my Uncle against my Dad." Ianto said and Matthew Taylor began to quickly write down these notes into a new page on his notebook.

"And why are we having a child custody case against your Dad?" He asked, so that he could get the reason.

"My Dad abused both my Sister Rhiannon and myself since I was five and I don't know how old she was when he started abusing her."

"Alright, thank you Ianto," He turned to Ianto's Uncle, "Are you able to back this?"

"Yes," Dafydd replied while looking at his Nephew, "Yes I can."

"So Ianto," He turned back to the younger, "Your Uncle is the one that you would like to win the case, so that you can go and live with him?"

"Yes that's right."

"Alright well obviously you will be aware that if you lose the murder case that you will not be allowed to take child custody of Ianto and then something else will be sorted for that, however I – as your Lawyer for these cases – will try my best to ensure a victory for you in them both."

"Thank you." All three of them thanked him with something along those lines.

* * *

By Monday morning, Ianto was able to remove the sling from his shoulder. While walking to school, he and Owen made a few more rules with Jack. One of which was no fighting with John.

The day went alright for them, at least that was the case until after school.

* * *

Okay I will update the new chapter of Four Senses at some point tomorrow when I have finished editing it. Thank you for favouriting, alerting, reviewing and reading.


	28. Chapter 28

Okay sorry there was no update during the week, but I had three birthdays in the same week from my family and friends, so I didn't have too much time to write this, but I will try to update quicker next time.

* * *

When Jack and Ianto reached Jack's house after school they were both equally as shocked to see John leaning against the wall, but what else got them was that he was obviously talking to someone (or himself of course) who could have been one of Jack's neighbours, but the American doubted that as he was aware that both of his neighbours hated John just like he did.

"Excuse me John, what are you doing here?" Jack called out loudly, voicing both his and Ianto's thoughts as they approached, while interrupting his conversation with whomever it was, but as they rounded the corner they realised who it was.

Now Jack might not have realised as soon as he did if it wasn't for Ianto's reaction to noticing the person who John was talking to. Ianto gripped onto Jack's arm and pulled him back a few steps, although Jack decided to remain routed to the spot and slip Ianto behind him instead.

"Ah Jack, your home at last." John replied, but Jack was no longer looking at John, instead he was looking at the man that John was with – Ianto's Dad.

"Why are you here?"

"Isn't that obvious?" Ianto's Dad spoke, "I want my son to come home again."

"What so that you can beat him up? I don't think so." Jack replied.

"Jack." Ianto said pulling on his sleeve.

"Don't worry, I'll be alright, I promise." John made some form of exasperated sound and Jack tried his best to ignore him.

"But-" Ianto started.

"Really, it's fine." Jack replied.

"I never said anything about…" Ianto's Dad trailed off and Jack realised what Ianto had been trying to say a minute ago and breathed in, "How do you know?" Jack didn't answer and he could tell that it was a question that Ianto's Dad knew he wouldn't answer, because that would feel like betraying trust and destroying a promise that he had made to his boyfriend.

"Did he tell you?" The man was pointing at Ianto, who hid himself further behind Jack, who in turn raised an arm out to block the way around the side of him.

"So what if he did, right of free speech."

"I made him promise me that he would say nothing!" The man shouted loudly and one of Jack's next door neighbours stood on the door step, with a frown as she watched the commotion that had caught her eyes and ears in the first place.

"Well he sort of needed to and I suppose you could say that I pushed him into telling me out of concern, you know boyfriends are allowed to be worried."

"Boyfriends should only have girlfriends."

"God Ianto was right!" Jack exclaimed, "Look there is nothing wrong with him having a boyfriend, there are quite a few people these days that do you know."

"I don't care about anyone else, I only care about my son!"

"Well you obviously don't or you would allow him some freedom and you wouldn't abuse him like you do and have done in the past."

"He deserved it."

That was reply was it for Jack and he was considering telling the man that John was also gay, however he wondered what that would do, so in the end, after spotting his neighbour from the right, Mrs Henley stood on her doorstep, he called her into the conversation.

"Afternoon Mrs Henley."

"Oh, Jack I wondered when I would see you," The woman replied as she moved out of her garden and onto the pavement, "I heard about your new boyfriend and wanted to congratulate you and see if I could meet him."

"Well this, Mrs Henley, is my boyfriend Ianto Jones. Ianto Jones this is Mrs Henley, why don't the pair of you get acquainted properly."

"Hello son, please call me Rose. Now what would you like as a congratulation present?"

"Ur you don't have to get me anything."

"Nonsense I always get people presents for things now why don't you both come inside and we can talk," She looked over to where John and Ianto's Dad were stood, "Unless you're busy of course, don't let me interrupt you."

"Oh no, talking to you would be lovely, why don't you go inside and I'll follow in a moment."

"Right, I'll put the kettle on then." Rose said as she walked into the house, leaving the door on the latch for Jack and Ianto. Jack looked at Ianto and hinted towards the door.

"I meant you too." He told his boyfriend firmly.

"I'm not leaving you alone with him."

"Ianto, I'll be fine." Jack insisted.

"But I know him better than you do," Ianto pleaded, "I'll stay out of the way, just let me help you, please."

"Fine, but don't get near either of them." Ianto nodded and watched as Jack moved forwards slightly, but he didn't move a single step, his eyes scanning everything carefully.

"Ianto – not he – did not deserve what you have put him and his sister through and I will stop you."

"Yeah and how do you plan to do that?" The man asked, snarling at Jack slightly.

"The right way, not by fighting you with fists or punches and kicks, but with law, proof and pure truth."

"And you would go so far as to believe my idiotic son?"

"Yeah, because he is not idiotic and I bet he wishes that he was not your son and you know why? Because you are the idiot in that relationship except that said relationship never even really existed did it? Neither with Ianto, nor Rhiannon nor even with your own wife and his Uncle."

From the moment that Jack began to mention Rhiannon, his Mother and his Uncle, Ianto knew that they Jack was falling on a downward scale and barely had any time to warn him before his Dad threw the first punch.

Jack managed to duck and avoid it, however Ianto could notice Jack's mistake's easily before he even made them although he knew well enough that if he had been the one fighting his Dad right now that he would be making the exact same mistakes that Jack would be about to make, but Ianto wasn't going to let Jack make those mistakes.

"Stay down," He called out, "Move to the right after one second." Jack counted one second and then moved to his right, remaining down like Ianto had told him. Ianto's Dad always moved his right leg forward first and Ianto knew this. The man had been doing this for too long that it was hard now to change his battle style even when someone was calling out moves to someone else.

As Ianto had already predicted and known, the man moved his right leg first and Jack having now moved to the right was in the way.

"Lower your head!" Jack once again did as Ianto had instructed and lowered his head. Ianto's Dad tripped directly over him and Jack then stood up assuming it safe to do so before running over to Ianto and pointing towards the door of Mrs Henley's, who was now stood at the door step watching after hearing the commotion that had started up again.

"What's going on?" She asked as the two ran up to her.

"We'll explain over tea if that's alright." Jack told her as they all went inside and he shut the door behind them.

"So come on then, explanation my boy?" Mrs Henley asked as she sat down with the three cups of tea that she had made.

"Look if we tell you, would you be willing to provide us with a point at court?"

"At court?"

"Yeah that man was my Dad," Ianto started and Jack looked over at him slightly confused considering that he had been about to tell Mrs Henley the story, "He he's abusive." Rose gasped and placed a hand on Ianto's shoulder.

"Oh my poor dear, would you like a sweet? I have liquorice or chocolates amongst some other things if you want them?"

"No thank you." Ianto replied and that was when Jack placed a hand on his leg and gave him a small smile.

"Would you be able to confirm that he attacked me?"

"Yes of course I would be able to, I saw it with my own eyes."

"Thank you," Jack replied before standing up, "Now if you'll excuse me I have to make a phone call."

* * *

Rhys moved around the spare room, sorting out the two spare portable beds that they had. They were both fold up beds, so on their own they weren't overly comfortable, however Rhys had brought in many pillows, covers and blankets to make them a bit more comfortable.

He had told his Dad who was more than happy that he would be having friends coming to stay. His Mother was slightly annoyed, but said nothing too much and both of the parents agreed that the pair of friends could stay.

Rhys was also happy that Jack had decided to take him up on his offer and made sure that he had a selection of films that Jack and Ianto would like as well as himself as he looked forward to the upcoming days.

* * *

When Jack got off of the phone he was pointed my Mrs Henley into the living room where Ianto sat on the sofa with a blanket beside him.

"Are you cold?" Jack asked.

"Sort of." Ianto replied.

"Well let me help you warm up a bit." Jack sat down next to him and wrapped the blanket around Ianto like some form of cocoon before pulling his boyfriend close to him and placing a kiss on his forehead.

"I wasn't that cold."

"You shouldn't be now I'm here."

"No now I feel too hot and you haven't even been here for more than two minutes."

"You are hot though." Jack told him. A moment later Ianto managed to free one of his hands (his right) from inside of the blanket and whack Jack on the arm.

"Hey, I gave you a compliment!"

"And I whacked you on the arm, now we're even." Ianto said it in a joking way, but Jack could see that through it was a sense of worry.

"We'll sort this whole thing out, remember I promised you that."

"When is the court case meant to be?" Ianto asked.

"A couple of weeks I believe."

"Can we have it brought forward?"

"I suppose that we could ask Mr Taylor if he could do that for us."

* * *

Rhys's house was very different to what Jack and Ianto had first thought that it would look like and his parents were a bit different to what they had thought as well. Rhys's Dad was in charge of a haulage firm called Harwood's at this moment in time and his Mother didn't actually do a job.

The next morning, Rhys headed to school, but Jack and Ianto headed over to see Mr Taylor who was pleased to see them.

"Morning, Jack, Ianto, what can I do for you both?"

"We need you to bring the date that we go to court forward."

"Why ever do you need me to do that?"

"My Dad turned up at Jack's last night."

"Are either of you hurt?" Matthew Taylor asked them and Ianto shook his head.

"He came close, but no, we are both fine, thank you."

"Okay, well we could probably do Saturday since I have no cases that day."

"Saturday is brilliant," Jack replied, "Is that alright with you Ianto?"

"Saturday is more that alright with me."

"Then Saturday it is," Mr Taylor said before making a note of that, "I can do anytime from ten o clock in the morning, but since we are doing both cases in one go, I would recommend that we started as early as we possibly could."

"Then let's start at ten." Ianto replied and the man made a note of that as well.

"I will inform the court about that, but I assume that you can inform your Uncle, Ianto?"

"Yeah. I will visit him later and let him know." Ianto told him before he and Jack left and returned to school for the rest of the day.

Afterwards they visited Ianto's Uncle and informed him before returning to Rhys's. Jack left again to go and see Mrs Henley to let her know about the date as well. When he left hers he had ended up with four boxes of chocolates and a very large card from her weekly club that she went to with her friends that all of them had signed.

When Ianto saw it all he was shocked to say the least as was Rhys when Jack walked through the door with all of the boxes. He handed the card to Ianto to open and gave Rhys one of the boxes of chocolates, knowing that he couldn't eat them all on his own, especially since Ianto didn't eat them.

"Jack." Ianto's voice spoke.

"Yeah," The older said as he turned around, "What is it?" Ianto held the card out towards him and opened it and both Jack and Rhys watched in shock as an unknown amount of money fell out of it.

"I'm guessing she didn't tell you about the money in the card then?"

"No she didn't."

"Bloody hell mate, you must have enough money there to buy about ten more boxes of these chocolates."

"Half of it is Ianto's remember Rhys." Jack said as he picked it all up and began to count it. He had counted thirty five pounds by the time that he was half way through.

"None of it is ours." Ianto said as he grabbed it from Jack.

"Hey, that was a gift to us."

"Yes and we are giving it back."

"Ah but that's rude. It's rude to give back gifts once someone has given it to you."

"Yes, but Jack this is your next door neighbour. She's only met me once and I mean look at this," Ianto was referring to the card as he sat down next to Jack and Rhys on the floor and showed them the card, "It's from; Rose; Pat; Janet; Cynthie; Tracy; Natalie; Leticia; Jane and many other people that I have never met in my life."

"I've met them, once or twice in passing for a couple of minutes."

"That's not really meeting someone though, Jack." Ianto told him.

"Yeah, but they were the ones who gave us the money." Jack replied.

"As a congratulations present? Who gives money for congratulation present?"

"A lot of people actually, Ianto."

"Yes Jack, for Wedding presents and Engagement present and maybe for graduations from university and stuff, but not really on getting a boyfriend."

"Well that was there choice."

"Yes, but Jack that is like sixty pounds worth of money."

"I think it's more than that, mate." Rhys told Ianto after flicking through it.

"However much it is, we have to give it back to them."

"No we don't, because if they wanted it they would have kept it in the first place."

"Jack just give it back to them." Ianto insisted. Rhys got up and left the room at that point with one of the boxes of chocolates, only now thinking of what he had got himself into for the time of letting Jack stay here.

Although as he ate the box of chocolates while watching the TV and listening to Jack and Ianto still going on about giving or not giving the money back to the older people, a smile managed to appear on his face.

* * *

Okay this chapter was shorter than the others and was just a fill in chapter really, because of the next chapter. And also I realised that I never actually clicked post chapter to post the next chapter of Four Senses, so I'm very sorry about that and I will upload that one shortly. Thanks for favouriting, alerting, reviewing and reading.


	29. Chapter 29

Hey, I'm sorry for not updating this story in ages, but I ended up taking my Spanish and Biology GCSE this year instead of next year, because I was getting too far ahead than the rest of my class, I found out I'm dyslexic and my Dad died, so I didn't have much time to write this story. I wasn't going to finish it, but then my cousin said something that inspired me to at my Dad's funeral and I thought that you all deserved to see the end after all of your reviews and time spent reading up to this point.

So, sorry it's short, but I hope to have another update soon :) Thanks to all of you who reviewed, favourited and alerted.

* * *

When Rhys finally managed to get to sleep that evening, he found himself being completely shattered. He, Jack and Ianto had spent the evening watching the most recent James Bond film: Skyfall. That was before Rhys remembered that he and Jack had History homework on the Rise of the Nazi's and Ianto tried his best to help them while asking why they hadn't done it before hand and left it to the last minute.

However, their main source of help had fallen asleep about thirty minutes later and the pair had to turn to look on their laptops to find sources that said the same thing in order for them to them copy it out into their essays, which (due to both receiving Ianto's help and the same sources from the internet,) were almost an identical pair. Of course they knew this wouldn't look good to Miss when they handed the essays in, but they were both beyond caring now that they left it be, gave up and went to bed.

Jack had to carry Ianto into Rhys's spare room and felt bad for not doing so earlier rather than letting him fall asleep leaning against Rhys's bed, but he figured he could apologise for that tomorrow and if Ianto didn't ask, he wouldn't have to tell.

All of them had gotten ready for bed before, so Jack just placed Ianto on the bed and pulled the blanket over him, making sure to tuck in the edges slightly around him before climbing into bed himself, knowing he would wake up tomorrow wishing that he had gone to sleep earlier.

* * *

Despite their late night, Rhys and Jack were up before Ianto who woke up when Rhys brought them both breakfast up.

"My Dad always makes me and Mum have breakfast in bed before we get up and said that you two had to as well while you were here," Rhys explained before going back to add more, "He actually said that you might as well to save you getting your own, but that to me is a lot more like saying you must in a nice way."

"Is there a nice way to tell people to do things?" Jack asked curiously.

"There is," Ianto replied, "But people don't usually listen to it. Like teachers giving you homework and then being forced to give out a load of detentions, because no one does it."

"Well, we've done our homework haven't we Rhys." Jack said looking at the other.

"Oh yes. Definitely."

"Yeah, eventually at quarter past twelve." Ianto added.

"We actually finished it at one o clock, but you fell asleep." Rhys corrected.

"At least I know what to tell your History teacher then." Ianto replied before noticing the look he was getting from Jack.

"You wouldn't."

"I would."

"No, you wouldn't do that to me Ianto." Jack told him, adding in little puppy like eyes.

"It would depend on what you did first." Ianto answered before finding that Jack had pounced on him and before they knew it, they were both on the floor with Rhys staring down at them for a brief moment before he put the breakfast tray on the small table and left the room with a simple, "See ya."

Ianto looked up at Jack's face as the older had ended up above him in their small, childish and completely fake struggle.

"I assume I'm not going anywhere any time soon then?" Ianto asked, but he already knew the answer to that.

"It would depend," Jack replied, "On two things."

"Which are?"

"Whether you will agree to go on a date with me."

"And the second?"

"Whether you'll read Of Mice and Men to me or not for a bedtime story tonight." Ianto couldn't help, but laugh at the second thing.

"Okay, but I'm not sure it's really a 'bedtime story' sort of book and secondly - do you really even need one?"

"No, but I want one. There's a difference." Jack told him.

"I'm aware."

"And what about the first thing?" Jack asked.

"Okay, but no where expensive."

"You have my word," Jack moved then so that he was sat beside Ianto and offered to help the younger into a sitting position and off of the floor, "I'll ask Owen to tell me the cheapest place he knows." Ianto laughed slightly and lightly tapped Jack on the elbow.

"Speaking off Owen, we need to have breakfast and get ready for school to go and meet him." Jack seemed to sit there and ponder on the true statement before making his conclusion.

"No, I'm alright here thanks."

"Well I'm going so I'll see you later." Ianto replied as he went to stand up.

"Not without me, you're not." The older said lightheartly as he jumped to his feet quickly and rushed towards the door in order to brush his teeth and get ready to leave. As the door was partly closed he poked his head back round it.

"Just so I know, you aren't really going to tell my History teacher about the homework thing are you?"

"No. Never was. What do you take me for?"

"Um, let's see; hot, sweet, delicious, lovely - how long have I got?"

"Ten seconds." Ianto replied with an obvious smile. Jack pushed the door open again and crossed the floor space between him and the younger in seconds and kissed him. He had gone way past ten seconds (more like thirty,) when he stopped and stepped back.

"Does that sum it up for you?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Good. Now start having some breakfast, I'll be back in a minute." Jack told him as he headed towards the door again.

"Yes Sir." Ianto answered with a mock salute and Jack couldn't help smile and laugh at the same time.

"You should do that more often. I like it."

"Jack." Ianto said warningly as he stared at the other from across the room.

"Alright I'm going to get ready." Jack said before finally leaving the room and Ianto just rolled his eyes.

When the three of them finally met up with Tosh and Gwen, they were five minutes late thanks to Jack who had apologised to them once during the walk.  
Owen was happy to see them and greeted them all before heading to talk to Tosh. Their walk was peaceful and having the sun shining for once made a nice change for them.

* * *

School was relatively peaceful as well and the day seemed to pass quickly. When school ended Ianto and Jack headed a different way to everyone else and told Rhys that they would see him later before heading towards the prison to see Ianto's uncle. While they were walking Jack was busy texting at the same time as talking to Ianto, but whenever the younger asked who he was texting or tried to see what the text said, the older moved the phone out of his reach and sight, so eventually Ianto gave up and let him finish the text.

For some reason the prison was full of visitors that afternoon and Ianto couldn't help but feel that everyone was staring at him and Jack. The pair sat at the table waiting for the guards to bring Ianto's uncle out to see them. Jack kept glancing across at Ianto who was keeping his head down.

"What's wrong?" Jack asked eventually.

"Nothing's wrong," Ianto replied, "Not as such anyway."

"That still means that there's something, so tell me."

"I'm just nervous." Ianto explained.

"Ianto we visit your uncle a lot, what's making you nervous about this time?"

"It's not this visit. I'm not nervous about visiting my uncle, I never am. I just-"

"Just what?" The older asked as Ianto stood up, panic clear in his eyes before he started rambling without stop as if there was going to be no tomorrow and they were all going to die in the next few hours.

"Worried about Saturday. What if it all goes wrong? What if we don't win? What if we-" Jack had jumped up a moment later and reached out to the younger.

"Ianto, Ianto, listen to me," Jack took a hold of Ianto's shoulders and turned him to face him slightly, "We'll be fine. Just trust me." Ianto didn't say anything for a moment and stared down at the floor before looking back up, biting his lip slightly. Jack could tell that he was nervous, but he had hoped that the nerves wouldn't set in until Saturday if possible.

"Uncle." Ianto exclaimed out loud as the man entered the room. The younger was able to cross the floor distance in seconds and reached his uncle quickly.

"Hey," The man didn't finish his greeting sentence before Ianto had chucked his arms around him and embraced him in a tight gripped hug, "Whoa someone's happy to see me."

"He's nervous." Jack told the older man before sitting himself back down.

"What about? Oh let me guess: Saturday?"

"Yeah." Ianto answered as he sat himself back down next to Jack, who put an arm around his shoulders.

"Not that I'm not happy to see either of you, but why exactly are you here?" David Lewis asked his Nephew and his Nephew's boyfriend.

"I… We just wanted to see you." Ianto explained.

"Aww, I'm touched." Ianto smiled and Jack couldn't help but do the same. The evening continued on nicely and Ianto almost completely forgot about his nerves that had arisen earlier and Jack wasn't about to mention anything on the subject as he was glad to see Ianto happy.

"So, I was thinking. We could keep the house that your Dad owned, or I could get us somewhere new. It's completely up to you. And then of course, there's your room."

"Won't that just be simple?" Ianto questioned.

"No, no no. Unless you want it white and plain like the one at your house then no it can be any colour you like."

"Any colour?"

"Absolutely."

"It could be wallpapered." Jack suggested.

"It could be a rainbow of colours," His uncle added, "It could be anything. Oh and then there's furniture. Something nice though."

"But it would be expensive, wouldn't it?

"Money doesn't matter."

"Ianto, listen to the man. If he says money doesn't matter then take his word for it. Money doesn't matter to him."

"But what if you end up in debt?"

"I'm not gonna spend it all on alcohol and other things like that Ianto. I'm not addicted to anything and I promise you that I won't become like that."

"I think you already are. Both of you actually. To the same thing."

"What?" His uncle questioned.

"What am I addicted to?" Jack asked curiously as Ianto brought him into the conversation as well.

"Me. Me being happy."

"Well that's only natural," Jack answered, "I'll happily be addicted to that. To you."

"I want you to be happy Ianto. Your fifthteen and in what? Three years? You'll be going to university and you won't need to live at home anymore, so I think that you should get to spend those last three odd years in a happy place."

"I think the same and I'm going to help you to get it." Jack explained and Ianto hugged him, tears in his eyes.

"Anyway if it's alright, Ianto we need to go somewhere." Jack told him as he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, but couldn't answer it since he had Ianto wrapped around him. Ianto sat back up and looked at his uncle.

"Is it alright if we go?" He asked.

"Of course, go, enjoy yourselves and I'll see you later." The man replied as he rose from his seat to give Ianto a hug. Ianto hugged him before standing back. Jack stood up and extended a hand for the man to shake, which he did before saying goodbye and putting an arm around Ianto's shoulder as he led him out of the prison.

As Mr Lewis headed back to his cell, he thought over his Nephew and his new boyfriend and decided that he liked their relationship and wished them all the best for the future. He smiled as he sat back down in his cell and waited for Saturday to arrive.

* * *

So once again, sorry I haven't updated in ages. I hope to update a few more times over the holidays, but please bare with me :)


End file.
